Sanjyot Keer is a renowned Indian chef, food stylist, and social media influencer. He is widely known for his popular food channel ‘Your Food Lab’ on YouTube, which has millions of subscribers. Sanjyot’s creative and innovative approach to cooking has earned him a massive following on social media platforms, including Instagram and Facebook. His food styling and presentation have been appreciated by various food connoisseurs and enthusiasts globally. Sanjyot has also worked with various food brands and has been featured in several publications. He continues to inspire people with his unique recipes and culinary skills, making him one of the most prominent figures in the Indian food industry. In a candid chat, we understand his content, recipes and ventures
Question 1: Starting as a food producer with MasterChef India, what prompted you to start your own venture Your Food Lab?
Answer: MasterChef happened after I graduated from hotel management school. I had worked with a few restaurants before and then MasterChef happened. While working on MasterChef, I had an incredible learning experience working with one of India’s top chefs, Vikas Khanna, Sanjeev Kapoor and Ranveer Brar. Just after MasterChef, I had planned to go out and study further and do my masters in culinary arts from London but at that time, my family went through a rough phase. We had a financial crisis as there were some losses in business and thus I joined my father and we were working together so that we could bounce back. This was something different from culinary arts and food, and while working with my father, I used to think every day how I could keep in touch with food.
First, I thought about starting a food blog where I could write about food, maybe share food photography or food plating techniques. As I had worked on the sets of MasterChef, I realised there was this lack of fast-paced food content. Food content was presented in a very old school manner and then, the first format which came out of Your Food Lab was teaching people how to cook in a minute and that’s how it all started.
I started shooting on weekends where from Monday to Friday, I would go to the factory, and on Saturdays & Sundays, I used to shoot my content. My first week itself with content creation was a massive hit. My third video went on to do a million views within a week and it was a great start. There were a few principles to follow in my mind and a few missions I wanted to achieve while working with food. Content is one of them, where I wanted to make food recipes very approachable because I knew that there were a lot of unfortunate people who did not have access to travelling, exploring food, and dining at restaurants. Thus, I started making recipes in a very simplified and understandable manner so that people can actually cook at home and that really resonated with people.
Second, I wanted to put our Indian cuisine on the global map. For that, I wanted to present food in a very different manner and today Your Food Lab production is a benchmark in the digital food space where everyone looks up to it. Third is I wanted to spread a lot of smiles. I realised that when I cook or share recipes with people, I end up spreading a lot of happiness and positivity. Now it’s been seven years of content creation, I have heard millions of testimonials from people where they share stories about how my recipes have helped them celebrate, learn cooking, get out of anxiety and more. It’s been a great journey.
Question 2: Over the years, you would have covered almost every recipe, what challenges do you face creating new recipes now and how do you ensure that there is always a variation in the recipes?
Answer: Yes, I think there are more than 2500 videos in total of what we’ve done including various recipes, from traditional, fusions to new recipes which I have created. The whole cycle requires a lot of brainstorming. To work around recipes, I have a content schedule in which festivals, seasons, the time of the year, and everything is mentioned. I have another sheet where I have mentioned headings like main course, starters, soups, desserts, home cooked meals, restaurant style meals, street style recipes, spicy, non spicy, vegetarian, non vegetarian, different cuisines, different ingredients, and more. So whenever I look at these sheets, I get ideas on the recipes that I have not done in recent and I can cook on my channel.
There’s a lot of feedback also which we get from the audiences where they request us to make different recipes and that is also we take into consideration while deciding on a recipe. If there is any particular recipe which I feel needs to be cooked or there are a lot of requests for it, we record recipe videos in them.
Seasonality is something which is very important as every month or season has its own vegetables or fruits to devour on. So, we consider that too while cooking. Also there are some highlights on how we can use millets, how we can give some no onion, garlic recipes, or some vegan recipes. There are also various segments of audiences who follow a certain diet so we keep that in mind too while finalising recipes for the channel.
When you work with all of these factors every single day, you end up understanding the need for variation and the need of the hour. So the entire team looks for recipe options and we brainstorm ideas keeping in mind what has been posted already. After all the brainstorming, the recipe is being cooked in Your Food Lab for the audience to watch, try and enjoy.
Question 3: Being the first content creator from the food space to become a brand ambassador, how does it feel to explore the new domain and be a path maker for others?
Answer: I always wanted to do this! It was a big win for me as a content creator and collectively a win for all of us as a creator family or the creator economy. It is a win for us that legacy brands have started to make note of how content creators, and content creation has grown today. The brands now understand the reach of creators which has enabled us to also become the face of legacy brands.
Wagh Bakhri never had a brand ambassador before and today, I am engaged not only as their digital face but as their offline face as well be it for their campaigns in print, outdoor, TVCs, theatrical releases and also as as a face on their packaging. These different avenues feel great. It’s a big win for all of us as I feel this will lead as an example that a Chef turned content creator became the face of a legacy brand.
I’ll be happy enough to see other content creators being the face of multiple different brands in different categories. So my victory feels like a gateway. Being a brand ambassador, we have tried to amalgamate offline and online ways of engaging with audiences.
Question 4: Your Food Lab is a huge success online, do you plan to expand it into reality too with a restaurant?
Answer: It is something which is there in our future plan but not currently because right now I am focusing a lot more on building different sort of content for my audience. Last year, we built Chef It Up season one and now we are planning to do Chef It Up season 2. We are planning content in different formats be it in the long format, or in the short format. We also recently released a series called Street Style Foods of India, where I’m covering street foods from all over the country in the ASMR format, which is very well accepted by my audience, making the series a great success.
We are also doing a lot of collaborative work in the food space which is something new in the Indian digital food space. Other than the content, I’m also building my D2C company where you could use Your Food Lab products at your home. I’m also writing my own cookbook. There’s a lot happening right now, but the plan to own a restaurant is in the future only for now.
Question 5: Do you plan to take Your Food Lab on a global level? What is your vision for Your Food Lab?
Answer: Your Food Lab already has global audiences as our major audiences are from the USA, Canada, Singapore, the Middle East, and Australia. So, we already cater to different parts of the world. We also decided to subtitle all of our videos in English to help our global audience understand the recipes better. Going forward, we also plan to make content in different languages and we are just sorting the logistics for the same.
The whole idea about starting Your Food Lab was to put our Indian cuisine on the global map and promote them, making people understand how Indian food is actually cooked. Indian food is very flavorful, diverse, and colourful, and we believe that people aross the globe need to see that. With Your Food Lab, the Indian food recipes are already being watched globally. However, now we are also focusing on the micro level along with the idea of promoting Indian Food globally. So, currently global audiences are there and we are growing even further.
Question 6: If you have to pick one signature cuisine or food to your name, what would it be and why?
Answer: It’s a very difficult question! I feel food in general is an art and whatever I come across is beautifully made. I really resonate with food. However, if you ask me to pick the cuisine that I want to be my signature, then it will surely be Indian cuisine. Our country is so diverse and the Indian cuisine itself has a vast range under it that even if you go on to try each and every cuisine from our country, it will take a lifetime. I cannot pick one signature cuisine to my name, but I can surely say that if there’s just one cuisine which I would love to cook, I’ll choose Indian cuisine because it will allow me to cook so many different cuisines belonging to our country.
Question 7: What is your favourite food that is made by someone else and why?
Answer: Some of my favourite foods cooked by other people are my dad’s Punjabi style mutton curry which he has been cooking since I was a kid so there is a lot of nostalgic value connected to it. The other one has to be my mom’s kheer which is very famous amongst our friends and family. I have tried multiple times to make that kheer myself with her standing right beside me but I can’t get the taste right ever maybe because it has my mother’s love in it.
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