This Chef Has A Lot On His Plate

This Society interview with Chef Vikas Khanna will give you insights into the life and stories of the world’s most prolific chef…

- Debjani Ghosh

The host of Masterchef India, Chef Vikas Khanna, had opened his restaurant Junoon in Manhattan in 2009, for which he was awarded the prestigious Michelin Star in 2012-14. This good-looking man, who’s the heart-throb of many girls across the world, ironically, was born with misaligned feet and wasn’t able to run until he was 13. But once he could, he didn’t stop. As he likes to say, ‘My mother always said I was never born to walk, I was born to fly.’

In a poll conducted by the Eater blog, he was voted as ‘New York’s Hottest Chef’ in 2011 and 2012. And, he vindicated the title by appearing absolutely dapper in a black Versace suit at the Cannes Film Festival 2017 red carpet where he walked with a charismatic smile. Khanna is known for being friendly and approachable. It proved true when I went to Hotel Westin in Mumbai to talk to him. He turned out to be a gentleman to the core.

Prior to being selected by the Welcome Group Graduate School of Hotel Administration in Manipal, Khanna had own flourishing banquet and catering business in Lawrence Gardens, Amritsar. His grandmother, who was his first cooking teacher, had supported his earliest food business, which he opened at the age of 16, and specialised in chhole-bhature, paneer-pakoda, spring rolls and aloo-tikki.

Keeping food simple, and cooking it with full passion is the most important mantra that one should have when in the kitchen, according to Khanna, because the same energy goes into the food. “I just think it’s so important for me to do work which is new. I don’t want to do work which has been done before. Zaruri nahi hai har waqt kuch naya karna? (Don’t you think it’s important to try something new each time?),” rhetorically asks Khanna, relaxing on the huge couch in his gigantic hotel room.