Sanjay Thumma
Sanjay Thumma (born April 26, 1970) is an Indian chef, and the founder of vahrehvah.com. He is especially popular among the Indian expatriate communities in mainland Europe and America. He became known most for his online recipes channel on YouTube, which he started in 2007.[1]
Early life and education
Thumma studied hotel management in Hyderabad, India. He stated that because he was so mischievous as a boy, his mother would put him in the kitchen to prevent him from annoying his siblings and to keep his voice level down. To keep him occupied, she would have him mash up spices. His mother fostered a deep fascination with cooking by allowing him to ask questions and provide assistance in preparing meals.
Career
He began his career working for various ITC hotels in Gurgaon, Chennai, Agra and Jaipur. In 1998 he relocated to Chicago to start his own restaurant: Sizzle India. After founding four restaurants over seven years, he decided to sell them all, and took a two-year vacation. In September 2007, he set up a studio in Chicago and started recording his first 150 recipes, which were posted on YouTube with each video reaching over a million views. Later he launched his food website and moved back to Hyderabad, where he is currently based.[1]
After a hiatus of almost two years, Sanjay returned to his YouTube cooking channel show.
Video demonstrations
Gone are the days when you had a webpage listing out the steps and ingredients for preparing a dish in a boring text format. Sanjay has a unique style of presenting the cooking and created a niche for himself through his very lively video demonstrations. He is a real livewire when it comes to the presentation of even the most (seemingly) simple dishes.
All his videos invariably start with his amiable greetings "Hello, Namaste, salaam-alaikum,Sat-sri-akal, welcome back to an other session with your VahChef at VahrehVah.com, today we are going to learn how to make...."
This greeting is followed by either a small anecdote or a reason behind the preparation of a particular dish.
And finally (and invariably) the videos end with his, now famous, departing lines "...do not forget, VahrehVah is all about inspiring others to cook, so please post your recipes and cooking tips at VahrehVah.com so others can benefit from your great cooking"
He meticulously plans his presentation upfront with well laid out array of ingredients and their proportions.
A foodie himself to the core, his true passion for cooking (and eating) reveals itself when his tastes his own preparation and interjects his commentary with "uhhs...umms..and ahhs". These hilarious interjections are undoubtedly one of the best parts to watch during his video demonstrations.
His presentations make cooking look a science rather than an art. Through his video demonstrations, Sanjay has made cooking a pleasurable "pastime" for many. He shoots the vidoes in his kitchen that was apparently designed by himself.
Recently, Sanjay achieved a milestone by posting his 1000th video recipe on his now famous VahChef Page on Facebook and YouTube.
Reaching a different audience
Sanjay now co-hosts (and judges) a culinary show in Telugu, named 'Vantintlo Wonders' (which translates to 'Wonders in the kitchen') aired on a very popular south-indian TV channel. This is an acknowledgement of the fact that his popularity as a chef is ever-increasing, on and beyond the internet.
References
- ^ a b It’s cooking on YouTube The Hindu, Apr 25, 2009.