Touching A Million Lives Vikas Khanna

Chef Vikas Khanna stays in Manhattan. But last year, when the pandemic led to millions of people going hungry in his own country, the Michelin-star chef could not do anything. While India slept, the chef worked across continents and time zones to organise a massive food distribution drive that has fed millions of people till date. Ask him what made him start Feed India, and he credits his mother, who stays in Amritsar. “My mom was quite brutal. She said that each time I hear of people going hungry and if my son is not doing anything, I will blame you,” he recalls.

- Deepali Singh

In December last year, his award-winning film The Last Color released in India, and just a few days ago, he has announced an Indian cultural centre in Manhattan to promote Indian art, culture, heritage and culinary arts. It is named ‘Binder’, a combination of alphabets from his parents’ names Bindu and Davinder. Our cover star for the New Year, the good chef shared his thoughts with TMM. Excerpts from a conversation:

How did you manage to do so much all the way from the United States?

The initiative was run like a Michelin star restaurant. Each city had a four-digit code and when you clicked on the code, you could see the vendors, the foundations, the delivery boys etc. We had a big structure in New York to run this. I put everything on hold. I had opened one new restaurant and we did some books. Besides that, we only did Feed India.

What has been the biggest takeaway from this year for you?

It just shows how vulnerable we are. Being so advanced, did we ever think that we would not be able to even deal with a virus? We saw how humanity is so connected. The virus was not sparing the rich or the poor. New York was very badly hit too. Outside my house, there were parked emergency vans. I was in the middle of all this and I told myself that I need to stay stable because there is too much negativity. I just focused on Feed India. I have written a soon-to-be-published book that details how it was taken care of. I want to document this because I want anyone who thinks this is impossible to know that if this was possible, then everything is possible.

Has anything changed about the way you cook?