What a year it has been! 2016 has been full of adventure and fun.
It started with a little trip to India where I got to visit Punjab for the first time. My little taste of Punjab included some amazing North Indian food like chole kulcha, jalebi, and the best chicken curry I had ever tasted. I was awestruck by the Golden Temple which hosts the world’s largest Lungar, free kitchen, feeding upto 500,000 people everyday!
It was also a busy year for baking as I got a chance to make a special birthday cake for the Turner Contemporary Gallery in Margate. Turner gallery has been an incredible success story for the local area providing a much needed boost to the local economy and arts scene. It was an honour to bake the cake and to celebrate with the amazingly talented Tracey Emin and the whole team at the gallery.
I was also able to visit Paris again this year after a very long time, only this time with my children, and we had the most wonderful time roaming the Parisian streets and trying the most delicious patisseries and lots of amazing bakes.
The highlight of the year was the release of my first book ‘The Cardamom Trail‘ published by Octopus books in April. I celebrated the special day with my lovely team and my friends. I am so pleased that people have liked the book and are baking so much from it. It also made into a lot of Christmas lists for best books of the year. So if you have bought my book then please do leave a review on amazon for it and share pictures of the bakes with me if possible as I love to see you all baking from it. I really enjoyed doing the book tour, visiting new places and meeting lots of lovely people.
So pleased #Cardamomtrail sitting pretty with these amazing books to buy this #Christmas by @bbcgoodfood thankyou🙏 pic.twitter.com/h6275w5TJu
— Chetna Makan (@chetnamakan) 7 November 2016
Another highlight of the year was completing one whole year of my Youtube channel ‘Food with Chetna‘. I love sharing recipes on my channel as I get really lovely response from people who try the recipes and love cooking them for family and friends. I have also been lucky to do some great collabs with some wonderful foodies for my channel. You can find all those over on my channel, my favourite being the recipes I made with my Mum. Make sure you subscribe to my channel if you have not already done so. Its free and you get a new recipe every week!
In the summer I visited India once again to try some more amazing Indian food cooked by my family and friends. I got to travel to new places and try some new dishes, which I had not tasted before. It was a great foodie adventure and I got a chance to meet some of my very old friends from school and college which was a great bonus.
The rest of the summer I visited a lot of food festivals and got to meet more lovely people who had been baking from my book. Its always great to hear which recipes have become your favourite and also which have become your family favourites.
It was also a great experience to be part of the Christmas Special Kitchen on BBC One
The year got even better when I got to see my sister and her family in the Caribbean to spend some quality time and celebrate Diwali with them. The other advantage of this meet was I got to try some more delicious Caribbean food and drinks and shot some recipes for my youtube channel, including the incredible cocktail- Mud Slide.
And what better way to end the year than to hold the last ever GBBO trophy on BBC one for The Great Christmas Bake Off! I was delighted to be asked to go back to the tent with previous years bakers and had an amazing time with the whole team once again. It was like baking with my extended family. The joy to see Mel, Sue, Paul and Mary again and then to be able to hold the cake stand at the end of it all!
Chetna, Howard, James and Janet will be gracing the gingham altar once again for #GBBOxmas. How we’ve missed them! pic.twitter.com/nxKbxXEoVJ
— British Bake Off (@BritishBakeOff) 8 December 2016
“Obviously the freezer knows it’s me!” #GBBOxmas pic.twitter.com/6lXIm8mb5n
— British Bake Off (@BritishBakeOff) 26 December 2016
Here’s that scene in emoji form:
😐 😏 😖 😝 😳 #GBBOxmas pic.twitter.com/xfTUB9UMiu— BBC One (@BBCOne) 26 December 2016
Congratulations to today’s #GBBOxmas winner Chetna! pic.twitter.com/UV9XtlSQS0
— British Bake Off (@BritishBakeOff) 26 December 2016
We will all miss The Great British Bake Off on BBC One! It has given the whole nation so many memories and moments. It changed my life for ever- for the better! As an avid fan of the show I look forward to it growing and doing well in its new home.
With love baked into every slice, let’s enjoy some of the sweet memories we’ve shared over the last 7 years of #GBBO on the @BBC. 🍰💜 pic.twitter.com/WozdLYKaFv
— BBC One (@BBCOne) 26 December 2016
I want to THANK you all for all the support and love you have given me through out the year. I hope this new year brings you all joy and good health and is full of delicious food!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
2016 was also the year I discovered Chetna! I do enjoy your blog and videos, and was very fortunate to see you in the only GBBO I’ve ever seen – the Xmas special! Congratulations.
Happy New year to you!
Paul
PS Am enjoying your book!
Thank you for posting all this for us! P.S. what was the dark stuff she poured down the straw in the mud slide clip please?