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Cutting Chai: The Series

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Cutting Chai: The Series

ALL EPISODES 1 - 10: NOW ONLINE

Chai Pani's first in-house culinary documentary, Cutting Chai, originally premiered at the Atlanta Film Festival as a full-length feature film. The film has now been adapted into an online series for your viewing pleasure. Episodes 1-10 are now available to watch at the Chai Pani Channel on YouTube, or by clicking below. Find out more about the film by scrolling down the page or clicking here, and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel or our email list to get notified for exciting new videos from the Chai Pani Channel.

WATCH THE LATEST EPISODES

Episodes 7-10 released Tuesday, April 11th

Episode 7. Rishikesh

A visit to Chef Meherwan's hometown of Ahmednagar, cooking with mom, and a journey to a true farmer's market, India-style.

Episode 8. mussoorie

The gang takes a day trip from Dehra Dun to the beautiful "hill station" of Mussoorie: famous for it's cool climate in the foothills of the Himalayas, and host to one of our top destinations of the trip: “Kalsang," a “Desi-Chinese" restaurant. Desi-Chinese food is very popular in India, and is sort of the Tex-Mex of the country: a blend of all the most indulgently delicious aspects of Indian and Chinese cuisine and heartily enjoyed by folks all over the country.

EPISODE 10. JAIPUR

The last destination of the trip. A city of palaces and royal cuisine. The gang experience the largest Rajasthani thali (mixed plate of food) they've ever laid eyes on, and take in the royal history.

episode 9. AMRISTAR

While Meherwan hangs back for some family time in Dehra Dun, Daniel, James, and Michael make a whirlwind trip to the famous city of Amritsar - heart of the Sikh religion. They visit the most sacred site for Sikh's, the golden temple, and enjoy some of their food, which they serve 24 hours a day with a literal army of volunteers to whoever walks in their doors.

Praise for Cutting Chai

"The rich and textured food culture of India gets the close-up it deserves in this remarkable film. And it's a great reminder that the Chai Pani dudes, who operate some of the most exciting restaurants in America, walk the walk." -- Matt Rodbard, Editor-in-Chief of TASTE

“Meherwan Irani’s excursions into the universe of Indian street food with his staff from Chai Pani, his lauded restaurant in Asheville, NC, will leave you salivating and jealous. As an added bonus you will also be seeing India in a completely new and refreshing way, in the company of 3 good-humored young chefs.” -- Peter Coyote, actor/writer

"We’ve all seen chefs explore their roots on television before, but this is a dizzying new array of flavors and dishes for us food lovers weaned on whiskey and country ham. May these manic, ever-curious tour guides inspire up-and-coming chefs the way they’ve inspired my nagging desire for a perfect cup of chai." -- Jed Portman, Garden & Gun Magazine

Watch

Episodes 1 - 6

Featured

EPISODE 1. CHAI

Series Premiere. Chai Pani chef Meherwan Irani and his young companions arrive in Mumbai. After a brief, ill-advised introduction to the chai of modern Indian malls, the boys quickly immerse themselves in India's complex street food scene, and the finer points of chai culture in India.

EPISODE 2. PARSI

A look at an important part of Meherwan's heritage: his father's side of the family and his Parsi roots - a very unique and small ethnic group of India with popular and delicious cuisine.

EPISODE 3. MUMBAI STREETS

A round up of some of the most renowned street food spots in Mumbai, and a solid critique of what's really the best.

EPISODE 4. HOME SWEET HOME

A visit to Chef Meherwan's hometown of Ahmednagar, cooking with mom, and a journey to a true farmer's market, India-style.

EPISODE 5. DELHI

A whirlwind mission through the back alleys and top street food spots in Delhi.

EPISODE 6. DEHRA DUN

A journey to Meherwan's family farm and the roots of his culinary heritage from his mom's side.

Intro

Cutting Chai is going on the road

We would love to bring Cutting Chai to your town. Let us know.

Past Screenings

KINOKI FILM FESTIVAL, MEXICO CITY, MEXICO

OXFORD, MS FILM FESTIVAL

FRIDAY/ FEB 16th/ 6 PM

AT THE POWERHOUSE

Visit www.oxfordfilmfest.org to find out more about the Oxford Film Festival.

GRAIL MOVIEHOUSE, ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA

ATLANTA FILM FESTIVAL, ATLANTA, GEORGIA

About

WATCH THE TRAILER

Cutting Chai is a 59 minute documentary following the culinary journey through India of three very determined chefs and their trusty cameraman. The one-of-a-kind documentary covers one of the South's most notable Indian street food concepts as two-time James Beard-nominated chef Meherwan Irani takes his Chai Pani crew of head chefs through 10 cities in 10 days by trains, planes, and auto-rickshaws, eating everything in sight.

Intimate, funny, touching, and irreverent - Cutting Chai is an explosion of color and sound, immersing viewers in the raw beauty of India's rural countryside, the opulence of its riches, and the culinary heart and soul of the country and its people.

Cast and Crew

MEET THE CAST & CREW

Featured

Meherwan Irani

In 2009, Irani quit his day job in sales to open his first restaurant– Chai Pani, an authentic Indian street food joint in downtown Asheville. Whether it was a midlife crisis or a stroke of genius is debatable. In any case, the self-taught chef is now opening his fifth. With two James Beard Award nominations for Best Chef in the Southeast under his belt, he's finally confident this might be working out.

His restaurants have been written up in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, GQ, Food & Wine, Men's Health, USA Today, and Bon Appetit, among others. Not bad for a former car salesman – although his mother who still lives in India is not impressed. He accredits his business success to the amazing people he works with each day, including his business partner and wife, Molly.

Michael Files

Michael made a life for himself eagerly traveling all over the world before finally convinced to stay in one place for more than a year– by helping open a little restaurant called Chai Pani. He initially joined up with Meherwan and Molly Irani in 2009 under the guise of finalizing a logo for Chai Pani, and has since gone on to do every job there is in the restaurant business, even helping to open every restaurant in the Chai Pani Restaurant Group. Having worked at a top contemporary art gallery in Mumbai, Michael has a long-standing deep love and connection to India that comes through in his design of the Chai Pani spaces. His work also focuses on communicating the mission of bringing Indian street food to the US audience, very often through various forms of art and video that seek to capture that unique and irreverent Indian spirit.

James Grogan

James first fell in love with cooking when he moved to Boone, NC to study accounting at ASU. He found himself with a job at a little family restaurant named Pepper's. He was so hooked that he changed careers and the trajectory of his life. From there he got a job as a dishwasher at the fine dining Crestwood restaurant, and within two years worked his way up to sous chef. In Asheville, fate and Chai Pani's good fortune landed him in 20 hours of interviews for the soon to open restaurant. He was finally hired as one of only 4 kitchen members. Now, as the Chef de Cuisine, he oversees a staff of 20. Since the Cutting Chai trip, he continued to venture to India on his own to keep his street food chops up. And, more importantly, he still loves waking up at 7am to cook daal.

Daniel Peach

Along with James, Daniel was one of the first four people hired to open the kitchen at Chai Pani. He now manages a large, diverse team of cooks at Chai Pani Decatur as the chef de cuisine. He hadn't initially planned on becoming an Indian chef, but he discovered a profound connection to the food and culture of India and fell in love. Over the past six years he has taught himself to read and write fluent Hindi and has gone to India so many times that he is practically commuting. On these trips he soaks up every opportunity to study, and learn new techniques and recipes, working in different restaurants, home kitchens, or on mud hut floors with Indian "aunties" he has befriended. His current focus is on heritage recipes, traditional techniques, and ingredients that are slowly disappearing in India as the country becomes more industrialized.

Daniel Files

One day Michael asked his brother Daniel to take him to the airport because he was going to India. On the way to the airport he asked him if he would perhaps like to help put together whatever footage they came back with as a sort of food/travel documentary. Daniel told Michael that he was insane, as well as an a**hole for even proposing such an idea as it would be a disaster to attempt that with such little planning. Over the next several months Michael somehow managed to cajole Daniel into doing exactly that anyway without being killed in his sleep. Needless to say, Daniel brought his many talents as an editor, camera operator, co-director and producer, and basically one-man-band of creativity to the project. Without him, suffice to say, Cutting Chai would still be a dream wallowing in Michael and Meherwan's video cards.

Coming Soon

COMING SOON TO A CITY NEAR YOU!

CUTTING CHAI IS PACKING IT ALL UP AND HITTING THE ROAD...

Have a venue in mind and think Cutting Chai would be a good fit? Work at a restaurant and want to partner up on an after party?
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