Cheat It All- A Young-Eater's Guide to Good Food and More

Eat. Sleep. Work. Repeat. A teenager's life, in short. Health. Who cares? Junk Food. Oh, yes! One of the many problems faced by today's teenagers is choosing between junk food, what they call "comfort food", and a healthier lifestyle. Interestingly, youngsters today are more health conscious than ever before. However, health comes at a hefty price-compromise on taste buds! What if you can enjoy the best of both worlds? Awesome! Isn't it? Think no more. Cheat It All is the ultimate cheat guide for all those unwilling to give up on those amazingly delicious, drool-worthy favourites, the very mention of which makes your mouth water. With more than 75 cheat recipes of sinful delicacies like the blue cheese burger, spicy hotdog, classic American cheesecake or the Oreo milkshake, you will never have to think twice before you indulge.
Still need motivation to eat healthy? Look up the INSPIRE section to get your spirits boosted by the words of famous celebrities from the film, sports and culinary industries. Written by a teenager, for youngsters who are ready to experiment and try their hand at cooking, this book, with its easy language and simple recipes, is the perfect start.
Pantry stocks. Check. Cups and spoons. Check. What are you waiting for? Pick up the book and cook up a storm in the kitchen. It's that easy.

Born and brought up in Delhi, seventeen-year-old foodie and fitness freak Vedant Bahri's life so far has weaved around his passion for food...and a lot of time spent in the kitchen. On the verge of finishing school, Vedant hopes to pursue a career in Culinary Entrepreneurship. He has been blogging since he was fourteen, sharing his recipes, restaurant reviews, and has become quite popular amongst his friends and family as the "Ultimate Food Guru", advising them on the restaurants they should visit and the food they should try there.
Besides his passion for food, nutrition, acting, reading, cycling, he also believes in community service, volunteering for his mother's NGO for young artists.
Vedant hopes someday he can make his dream a reality to be the biggest "foodie" ever.

No, I'm not a trained chef or a nutritionist, but a "young eater"-a youngster who loves to cook and, more importantly, EAT. I remember once initially, when I saw an episode of Rachel Allen: Bakel on the television, the apple cake that she baked made my mouth water instantaneously. I knew I had to make it, but the question was how? I had never baked before and didn't know anything about it. That was the first time when I researched on the Internet and baked the same cake in a dhokhla (a popular Indian snack) pan as I didn't possess a cake pan at the time.. After that I watched many more episodes, baked even more and started enjoying baking, so much so that my parents decided to turn a little pantry at home into my experimental kitchen. I saved money to buy more gadgets and appliances to add to and better equip my little kitchen with the best baking utensils available.
We often experiment a lot at home with a variety of food served for every meal since my father, mother and sister have their own likes and dislikes. My father likes his food really rich, mom is a little of a health and organic food freak, and my little sister, well, she has no taste buds! It's a chore making her eat. So cooking is kind of a challenge in our house, keeping everyone happy and satiated. However, my experiments go down very well with my family members.
The initial impetus for the book came from the huge response that I got from the blog which I had started writing at 14-The Foodie Journey. My recipes and reviews of restaurants were highly appreciated by my friends and family. An uncle of mine suggested I write a book. At first, the idea seemed absurd; how can a guy whose read 5 books in his life, write his own book? However, after researching and going through many cook books, I felt quite confident and set down to compile the recipes for my book.
But the main concern for me was deciding the kind of recipes that I should offer in the book. What came in handy here was my personal experience with health foods. As a kid and in my early teens, I was a huge fan of junk food. I rarely ate at home and, much to the chagrin of my parents, fast food had become my primary source of sustenance. No wonder, I was chubby throughout school. However, there was a point when I realised the benefit of a healthy lifestyle, thanks to my mother and a few health-conscious teenage friends, I wanted to be "FIT". Since then I've tried almost everything-crash diets, 90-day workout programmes, you name it and I've done it! Unfortunately, nothing worked, until I made an effort to learn about "Health Food". I always thought of health food as boring green vegetables and other things that I hated. But now I realise that health food is actually quite subjective-I consider anything with low amounts of preservatives and processed ingredients as healthy.

Vedant Bahri is an irresistible heady mix of talent and passion put together. This is Vedant in his kitchen.
After a meeting this rearing-to-go' teenager's mother, it was almost re-living my childhood. I too began my experiments as early as 7 or 8 years of age and started documenting my recipes ever since. However, mine were anything that was "tasty", while Vedant has churned out food that goes beyond his years.
Being health conscious at such a young age is rare and truly commendable. I have to say that I have discovered some very nice ideas from his book, specially his jar concept.
If this is a creation of a 17-year-old, I wonder what lies ahead! I would like Vedant to reach out to as many youngsters in India and around the globe-to get young minds to think of good food as tasty and healthy and that the two are easily created and not mutually exclusive, to get young minds to use their hands and get to the kitchen rather than buying processed and ready-to-eat junk, to appreciate the flavours of "real" food not steeped with synthetic flavours.
They must look at food, not only as something to fill the stomach or please the taste buds but as a source of nourishment for the mind, body and soul. And at each instance to feel, touch and discover the joy of real food. I realise that Vedant has found the power of food. I noticed he has used Amaranth, "The King of Grains", my compliments to him for he has obviously done his homework discovering forgotten grains.
Well, this book seems to have something for everyone-from snacks, sandwiches and salads to curries and sweet treats. A global collection coming from a Little Master Chef. This is a phenomenal and truly inspirational recipe book. Hobby or profession? There is nothing more powerful than combining passion with talent and making it a profession. Whatever it may be, I can see this foodie is on a fast track, way ahead of his peers and he is surely on the right track as "Health is Wealth". My best wishes Vedant!