Food Network
Growing up in Ranchi, a city in eastern India, Maneet Chauhan frequently traveled with her family by train, sometimes spending two or three days in the open-air cars. She didn’t mind the long trips: In train stations throughout India, vendors sell chaat, a broad term for savory street snacks, so every stop was an opportunity to taste new things. Decades later, the Chopped judge still thinks about those journeys. “I got a glimpse of the amazing diversity of Indian food,” she says. Her new cookbook, Chaat, is filled with recipes inspired by memories — like eating bhel puri at a historic Mumbai train station, or warming up with a Tibetan noodle soup called thukpa during a winter ride through Guwahati. “I’ve had some of these dishes only once or twice, but they made a profound impact on my life,” she says. “Years later I still remember them.”