Chef Harpal Singh Sokhi
Director, Turban Tadka Hospitality Pvt. Ltd.

Fusion of Indian food with international cuisine is what made Chef Harpal a name to reckon with in the hotel industry. A graduate from the catering school at Bhubaneshwar, he spent his initial years in learning different international cuisines, but later realised that his interest lay in unearthing the authentic regional Indian food.

Pursuing this goal, Chef Harpal mastered the art of Indian food and created a niche for himself by learning authentic Hyderabadi food under Ustad Habib Pasha. Begum Mumtaz Khan, an authority in Hyderabadi cuisine, further helped him in enhancing his knowledge.

Today, people recognise him with the famous quote, ‘namak shamak, namak shamak, daal dete hain’ as a host of the most popular culinary show ‘Turban Tadka’ on Food Food channel on Indian television. He has already bagged the title of ‘Energy Chef of India’ and passionately charged-up people about cooking!

He has worked with restaurants like Vintage – a Hyderabadi speciality restaurant – a specialty restaurant in Luxembourg, five star properties like Centaur Hotel (Juhu beach), The Oberoi (Bhubaneshwar), Hotel Tuli International (Vidarbha) and The Regent (Mumbai).

Chef Harpal has also received the title of ‘Most Admired Chef’ on television for the year 2012, by Golden Star Hospitality Awards.

He’s the first chef to come up with Indian fusion cuisines at the popular ‘Passage to India’ restaurant. He’s the creator of the famous Lalla Mussa Dal, which was highly appreciated by the Australian High Commission. The taste of this particular dish was given in a verdict of it being better than its counterpart dish Dal Bhukara.

He has been awarded with a letter of appreciation from the Australian High Commission praising the quality of the food cooked by him as the best in the country.

He also hosted the first ever episode of the programme Khana Khazana on ZEE TV in the year 1993.