Mumbai: Lifestyle channel Zee Zest has acquired exclusive rights for the third season of “The Big Forkers.” The new season will be launching exclusively on ZeeZest.com starting 15 February.
The 15-part series features cousins and hosts Shashank Jayakumar (Shanky) and Sid Mewara aka ‘The Forkers’ who love food, travel and discovering new cultures. The duo will be seen discovering the ‘Urru,’ Bangalore and its culinary offerings right from the local fair, regional specialties, and international tables along with the fan-favourite, ‘the pub crawl.’
From local food legends to upcoming stars, and beer gardens to college favourite pub crawls, they uncover pub life in Bangalore and the drinking culture across town. A true food journey loaded with new-age Smash Burgers, various kinds of interpreted meat preparations, biryanis, Korean meals, traditional Uttara (Northern) Kannada vegetarian meal and some very candid conversations.
Sid is an investment banker and ex-chef and Shanky is a serial technology entrepreneur and consultant to The World Bank. Their journey started with a tipsy conversation with friends while travelling through Spain in 2019, following the food trail by the late chef Anthony Bourdain.
The cousins set up a YouTube channel in 2020 called ‘The Big Forkers’ that showcased their exploration of cuisines. After completing two successful seasons in Mumbai and Goa, they are back with another season.
“The earlier two seasons piqued our interest with the duo’s edgy take on food and its many stories around it,” said Zee Zest business head Amit Nair. “In ‘Big Forkers’ season three, there is enough for the Bangalore local, the steady traveller or someone on the couch chilling with a cold one to take away from this latest installment from the big boys. This series is the first among the many digital-first properties that we plan to launch on zeezest.com.”
“Bangalore was all new to me which made it a voyage of discovery,” said co-host Sid Mewara. “Through the research, we did on the ‘Urru’, we knew we wanted to cover some of the staples such as the tiffin rooms, the military hotels and the craft beer scene. Personally, I love how progressive the city is, an oasis of sorts and can’t wait to show the viewers what we have in store.”
“Bangalore, for me, has always been work-related,” said co-host Shashank Jayakumar. “But just delving deeper made me realize that the city has held on to its European connections from colonial times. What I like, though, is that a majority of the population has managed to still be true to its roots. You will still see them in afternoon drinking sessions with idli, chutney on the side, or with Chicken 65 as a starter and I love Bangalore for that.”
