India’s Dancing Chef Harpal Singh Sokhi, who is currently seen in Laughter Chefs, is over the moon, as his YouTube channel has reached the mark of one million followers. He said, “I’m really glad that our YouTube channel has reached one million subscribers—it’s a great achievement. It took us quite some time to get here, and despite understanding YouTube well, it still took a lot of effort.”
“We’ve learned from our mistakes and are now focusing entirely on YouTube. We are working hard to create valuable content and believe that, moving forward, we will reach ten million subscribers much faster than it took to get to one million. It’s definitely a very happy feeling, and I’m thrilled that our content is being valued and appreciated across the country,” he added.
He believes in keeping himself updated and said that he always wanted to stay in pace with what was happening across the world and implement that into their network. Being the first YouTuber in the country’s food industry, he is happy that he has helped many others.
He added, “We ran into trouble also with some MCM companies. But I would say that that is okay. That is part of the game. We accept that with a pinch of salt, whatever happened. However, now we are completely focused on the content that we are creating and the music in the content that we are creating. We are definitely looking at changing the ballgame in time to come, and we are also looking at how more valuable content can be created in our YouTube channel.”
For chef Harpal, there have been many memorable moments during the YouTube journey, but he is always quite surprised when the most wonderful content doesn’t work, and at the same time, there are some that are not that great but do amazing on the platform. He added, “I would say that the memorable moment was when I made this recipe, which was aloo baingan ki sabji, in a pressure cooker. I found it ok, but when the recipe started running, I was like, “Maybe people want to consume such content.“
He thanked God for being so kind that he has always been able to come up with new recipes. He said, “We did about 600+ episodes of Turban Tadka, and each episode had about three recipes. So we have made more than 1800 recipes. We’ve never repeated those recipes, and we keep creating recipes by browsing the net and converting international recipes into Indian flavors. Travel helps us a lot. Travel helps in giving us ideas, and with those ideas, we create recipes that can be replicated at home. I would say I’m good at one thing: I understand what people want, what the taste is, and what a common taste is that people will like. So based on that, we create recipes.”
Is there any advice for people who want to start their own cooking channel? “I think one big piece of advice I have for people who want to start a YouTube channel is that you will need to have patience and you will need to invest. Don’t think that overnight you will start making money. I still don’t make money. But yes, the love of people has helped me reach the million-subscriber benchmark. Whether I make money or not is immaterial. I keep investing because I want to share the fine points,” he said.
“When I hear from people living internationally or everywhere that your butter chicken recipe that we make at home is the best, and when we go to restaurants, we don’t find such a butter chicken recipe, So that is what I have created through my YouTube channel. I’ve helped people understand what good food can be created at home, which is like a restaurant where you can cook with your family and create a momentous and memorable day with your family that you can enjoy. And that’s the sole objective. And I’m glad that I’m able to achieve that through my YouTube channel,” he added.
What are the future plans for the YouTube channel? “To go into the rural areas of India, share those recipes that the world should know. The world should know the vast culinary fabric that India has; it’s a great spectrum that India has, and people should know, like I remember as a budding chef now that I’ve spent almost 35 years in the early days when the western world did not accept Indian food. They would always downgrade the Indian food, which I never liked. The western food was nothing over the top. What India does or has, none of the countries in the world have. And I want to showcase that. And that can happen only when I travel deep inside the rural segments and showcase such recipes, which are great,” he said.
“You know, some of the best restaurants always claim that people go to jungles, find great herbs, and get them; that’s what happens in rural India. And as I’ve been researching wild greens and roaming around in various places, learning, you know, tribal foods, it is helping me to understand what great food India has. And this definitely needs to be showcased. And my next objective is to actually move tribal and showcase, that is, to work with farmers and showcase to the people of our country how difficult it is to grow vegetables. And let’s respect that, create a great, healthy atmosphere, and create a great respect for food,” he ended.
