Amidst nationwide lockdown and changing global food and lifestyle trends, India Food Network and Reliance Fresh conduct India’s First Live Lockdown Cooking Show!

The avant-garde digital show hosted by celebrity chef Amrita Raichand is a first-of-its-kind virtual concurrent cooking experience with RelianceOne customers through a LIVE streaming on Facebook before over a million-strong audience of home-chefs, aspiring culinary professionals and food-lovers

Mumbai, April 18, 2020: India Food Network (IFN), India’s oldest and largest digital food network, in collaboration with Reliance Fresh, India’s favourite neighbourhood supermarket, successfully concluded the country’s first-ever live virtual cooking reality show, the “Live Lockdown Cooking Show”. The unique aspect of this live broadcast was the fact it was a simultaneous live stream from two kitchens giving the viewer an experience of an actual live cook-along show, made even more relevant during times of a lockdown.
The 5-episode series from April 10-14, 2020 saw Chef Amrita interacting live with homemakers, professional culinary experts and even young students over delicious home-made food recipes, culinary hacks using food leftovers and thrifty cooking methods.
Reaching approx. 20 million unique consumers over 5 days and over 5 million completed views, this show created a platform for home chefs to showcase their skills, but most of all, at a time like this provide both comfort and entertainment. The show participants were amongst a larger pool of winners who also received gift vouchers from Reliance Fresh worth a total of INR 5,000 daily.
Quick-fix dishes like veggie frankie rolls, burrito bowls, paneer bhurji, carrot muffins and unique beverages like pear and peanut butter milkshakes and water-melonade were prepared live before enthusiastic viewers, who also shared their own versions of dishes through posts, photos and videos. The show was also sprinkled with light-hearted conversations between Chef Amrita, winners and viewers around how citizens are managing their larger schedules during the lockdown, how families are cherishing this time by spending time with each other through enjoyable hobbies like baking with their children and overall tips and advice on how to combat the lockdown blues through common the joys of cooking.
Lalatendu Panda, Chief Marketing Officer (Reliance Fresh and Reliance SMART) said, “We are big believers in using new ways of connecting with our RelianceOne consumers both online and offline. For us, serving their needs are paramount to our existence. Our team has been working very hard to ensure that we continue to provide our customers with all the support they need to ensure an uninterrupted supply of food products and a safe environment in the stores. This first ever Lockdown Cooking Show was another way to letting consumers know that we are with them every step of the way, helping them make healthy, tasty and quick meals, all of which help them in whatever way possible. This show was also a first for us and the industry where two kitchens were streaming simultaneously and cooking. We hope to continue creating content that excites and inspires our RelianceOne loyalty programme customers. “

This show was creatively conceptualized and produced by India Food Network (IFN) for Reliance Fresh. Rajeshree Naik, founder of IFN said, “Food content has clearly been a huge preoccupation both for comfort and practical reasons.   Whether it be recipe videos, advice on quarantine cooking, how to stock your pantry or the increased interest in baking and bread, food content has seen an unusual spike in interest. This cooking show we did with Reliance Fresh was one of its kind because it was live in a way where it was two kitchens cooking together – same time and also with a larger audience participation.  With food being both a need and source of distraction, we have been creating content that people will find very useful during times like this.”
Since its inception in 2012, with over 8000 recipes videos, a community of over 1.5million and a network of 200 food influencers, India Food Network has been consistently endeavouring to push the envelope in the digital culinary content space.  Live shows, IP’s such as The Mini Truck, Kissan Tiffin Timetable, live cook-alongs, among others.   The work with some of the largest food brands in the country such as Nestle, Unilever, Tata Consumer, Saffola, Emmami Oils, Reliance Fresh, Future group and many leading food brands.
For collaboration opportunities with India Food Network, you can drop in a mail to: [email protected]
For media queries, please contact:
Debalina Mukherjee: [email protected]; Manisha Dalal: [email protected]

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About India Food Network:
India Food Network or IFN has a mission to take Indian food to the world. It is your one-stop destination for everything food in India. IFN has delicious recipes, hungry travellers and tons of culinary fun, created and curated for foodies by foodies. India Food Network (IFN) is on multiple platforms including Twitter (@ifn), Instagram (@indiafoodnetwork), YouTube (indiafoodnetwork) and Facebook (indiafoodnetwork). They broadcast content individually for each platform aiming at different categories of audiences and food lovers, world over.
About Reliance Fresh:
Reliance Retail started its journey in 2006 with the opening of its first Reliance Fresh store. Today Reliance Retail operates 621 Reliance Fresh and Reliance Smart stores and sells over 200 metric tonnes of Fruits and over 300 metric tonnes of Vegetables every day. Reliance Fresh is India’s leading neighbourhood retail chain, synonymous with freshness & savings. With the three core promises of Fresh Hamesha, Available Hamesha and Savings Hamesha, Reliance Fresh is a one-stop-shop for fresh shopping, fresh savings and fresh happiness. From fresh fruits & vegetables to dairy, cereals to spices, processed food & beverages to home & personal care products, we have the entire gamut of your grocery needs covered. Across our stores, we retain a strong customer centric approach to meet all your shopping needs – be it routine or seasonal, well known brands or popular local products. Continuing Reliance’s hallowed tradition of backward integration, Reliance Retail directly partners with a large number of farmers and small vendors in a farm-to-fork model. The linkages with the farm has brought about transformational changes in the quality of life of the farmers as also enhancing the quality of produce, reducing wastage by shortening the time to move fresh produce and reducing intermediaries in the value chain thereby benefiting all.