Sometimes, one needs to see or experience the worst of a kind, to truly treasure the best. It's one of those kick-in-the-shins kinds of hard-hitting reality bites that leave an impression for long.

Roughly a decade ago, during a round of channel-surfing on the telly, we ended up snatching 15 minutes of a travel-meets-food show on a desi channel. Don't ask us why and how we landed there. Back then, choices were far and few so let's just leave it at the fact that we had to pick between this and re-runs of a slapstick comedy that had stopped being funny for ages. The host of this highly publicised show, clearly a novice, complete with a freshly rehearsed American accent, had probably never entered the kitchen.