Gurdeep Loyal, Mother Tongue: ‘You can preserve your heritage by putting your own spin on things’

Sign up to IndyEat's free newsletter for weekly recipes, foodie features and cookbook releases Get our food and drink newsletter for free Get our food and drink newsletter for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “It’s the classic Indian chaat snack – they have been present in every single family celebration,” Loyal says. It is salt, fat, sugar-heavy, and we are a big whisky-drinking family – as lots of Punjabi people are – so big, bold flavours, unapologetic with everything, very liberal in many different ways.” And Loyal says he “didn’t really have a choice” but to help out with the cooking as a child. “It was very much getting involved, particularly because we are a family that has always put on quite big parties, quite big weddings, and these are big four or five day events where food is the epicentre of it.” Loyal’s culinary adventures growing up weren’t just limited to Punjabi food. “It was really exciting growing up in Leicester because I got to experience all these sorts of different cultures, but equally, as with any kids, we loved pizza, pasta, burgers and American junk food – and our parents were really happy to indulge us, because they loved it just as much as we did.” Despite an obsession with food growing up, he didn’t work in the industry immediately.