Saif Ali Khan & MasterChef Shipra bring food-lovers into the kitchens

India Food Network (IFN), India’s oldest and largest digital food network, in collaboration with Essence (GroupM) and Britannia Cheese, will launch a first-of-its kind digitally streamed virtual cook-along show called ‘Britannia Cheese StarChef’ tomorrow. The show will feature leading Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan and celebrity chef Shipra Khanna cook up a storm of delicious and innovative cheese-based recipes of Indian and global cuisines. The hosts do this through virtual coordination and concurrent video-conferencing from within the comfort of their own kitchens!

 During the period of lockdown and social distancing, Saif has been utilizing his time by enhancing his culinary skills and cooking for his family and staff, which he often calls therapeutic and magical. Shipra, being an acclaimed MasterChef India winner, is globally renowned for her culinary expertise and passion for food. Together, the duo will rustle up mouth-watering and easy-to-make recipes like Cream Cheese Chocolate Cookie, Pizza Pockets, Cheesy Vada Pav, Cheesy Breakfast Burrito, Cheesy Tater Tots with Roasted Garlic, etc. Each dish will be prepared with a selection of the Britannia’s finest cheese products from its wholesome range, such as Britannia Cream Cheese, Roast Garlic Cheese Spread, Slice cheese, Britannia Cheeza and Britannia Asli Pepper cheese.

The show will comprise of 12 episodes of not more than 5-10 minutes each, keeping in mind the current trend of quick content consumption and the pulse of restricted attention span of viewers. However, the key defining aspect of the show was its creative direction and production prowess, overcoming several logistical challenges faced by content and production agencies, due to the restricted movement and social-distancing rules owing to the global pandemic. As the show’s content creator and producer, IFN ensured that direction of all episodes was conducted and controlled remotely and seamlessly, through multiple simultaneous video-call setups in the kitchens of Saif and Shipra, back-kitchen support for Saif, equipment and props distributed to the anchors met with optimum levels of safety measures through sanitization and protective packaging, thus ensuring high levels of safety standards at all times.

Throwing light on how the show’s seamless virtual production and execution despite logistical hurdles, Naveen Nair, Head of Operations, India Food Network (IFN), said, “Through this initiative, we saw an excellent opportunity to push the envelope in terms of innovative virtual direction and show production, keeping technology, content-creativity and safety standards at the forefront. Right from the initial conceptualization of recipe-versatility to the coordinative communication and execution between Saif, Shipra, the teams at Britannia, GroupM and us, we were able to piece together all the aspects of content-creation, production and distribution cohesively, which enabled us to hone and extend our expertise by yet another notch!”

 Britannia Cheese StarChef will begin from Friday, June 26, 2020, with 1 episode per week. The show will be streamed on IFN and Britannia’s YouTube and Facebook channels.

Since its inception in 2012, with over 10,000 recipes videos, a community of over 1.5million and a network of 200 food influencers, India Food Network has been consistently endeavoring to push the envelope in the digital culinary content space.  Live shows, IP’s such as The Mini Truck, Kissan Tiffin Timetable, live cook-alongs, among others.  They work with some of the largest food brands in the country such as Nestle, Unilever, Tata Consumer, Saffola, Emmami Oils, Reliance Fresh, Future group and many more.