India's Heroes: Anchal Chopra fought back Covid and comforted hundreds more with her food
Anchal conducts online classes and has been cooking thousands of yummy and tasty meals for people who suffered from COVID, needy and underprivileged children, government hospital workers and many more.
FollowThis COVID pandemic has taken a heavy toll on everyone across the globe and especially the second wave saw considerable losses in India. Many good humanitarians came forward to do their part in helping the nation in such times and one such woman is Delhi's Anchal Chopra Bhalla. By profession, she is the founder and director of Tastesutra, a cooking studio offering online and offline cook-along experiences. In pre-COVID days, her studio was occupied by tourists, groups and corporate professionals.
Currently, she conducts online classes and has been cooking thousands of yummy and tasty meals for people who suffered from COVID, needy and underprivileged children, government hospital workers and many more.
While speaking to Asianet Newsable, the chef was asked what made her start this noble work of sending free meals, and she responded by saying, "I am a chef, have a cooking school, and during the second wave, many close family members were infected with the virus. Last year, I was infected too and during the healing period, food was the only thing that gave me comfort."
"During the second wave when my family and friends were infected and were not able to cook; that's when I started sending them home-cooked meals. During that time, a lot of helplines were being set up for easy access to basic requirements. I volunteered with a few NGOs and then the number of meals kept increasing and now I send 150-200 meals a day," she added.
The chef volunteered for COVID meals for India, and several NGOs and projects such as Bajaj Foundation, Good Food Project, Little India Foundation, and many more started to contact her.
Speaking about the food that is being sent across, Anchal said she changes the menu every day and never compromises the quality.
"We cook food, what we usually eat. When the food is for adults, we try to make wholesome meals such as Rajma chawal, roti sabzi, pao bhaji; but when it's for kids, I try to make interesting things like pizzas, burgers, rolls etc," she added.
On how her day goes by, she said she cooks all the meals by 12.30 pm as the pickup truck arrives by then. "If I want to do good work and extend a helping hand to the needy, I can do it from my home," Anchal concluded.
