Eat and shoot gang
Passion for the camera brought them together, now love for food keeps them going. They are Delhi’s enthusiastic food lovers, rightly called the Delhi Food Enthusiast Group.
What branched out of a small community on Facebook, Delhi Photography Enthusiasts Guild, (which started on May 2, 2010 when 11 photography enthusiasts, from varied backgrounds met to discuss their passion, photography), today has more than 50 members who meet regularly for food walks and photography sessions.
“Being passionate photographers, we would go to Old Delhi to shoot, and often stopped by at small eateries for a quick bite. Talking about food at one of these meets, we decided to start food walks. Everyone was quite enthusiastic about it. And that’s how the inception of DFEG came about. Our first walk was at Kake Di Hatti,” shares Rajiv Iyer, who’s one of the founding members.
What started from there was a culinary cruise that had members asking for more. Taking us back in time, Gaurav Arora, another founding member recollects, “We went to Kake Di Hatti in Chandni Chowk where they have a big oven and make around 28 paranthas at one go. They break their oven each year and reinstall it after a puja. Last year, we were the first batch to dine in there after their auspicious ceremony. It was our first food session and their first meal after the puja.”
What followed next were interesting food events, evenings dedicated to specific cuisines and a number of walks in every nook and corner of the city. The group recently hosted an evening where they got together to shoot Amritsar and came back with Amritsari specials. “We even organised ‘Goa in Gurgaon’ where we arranged Goan recipes from this special place called Bernado’s Kitchen, where they make authentic Goan food. In fact, at the Amritsari night, we were all dressed in proper Punjabi attire. It’s always fun,” says Gaurav.
From swanky restaurants to the galis of Old Delhi, the group has explored various eateries and is planning to expand further and tie up with people from the food industry.
“We eventually plan to tie up with people from the industry too. As for next few events, we plan to put up posters to create awareness,” says Gaurav.
Interestingly the members of the group have expansion plans. “There are other groups which conduct food walks as well, but they usually write a restaurant review or do it for professional reasons. In our group, we are together just to enjoy food and photography sessions together. We are all from different backgrounds, yet plan to do something more to expand it,” says Rajiv.
He adds, “For instance, one of the members in the group, Arshi Dhupia, is a lawyer by profession and a baker too. She and I are planning a new venture along the lines of order-a-chef. You can order a set up where the chef comes to your place and cooks.”
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