Ranveer Brar

A culinary whiz, affable TV host, traveller, artist, poet and more – Brar’s journey with food stands out due to his knack for going against the norm, and excelling at it.

Ranveer Brar grew up in Lucknow at a time when passing out of college meant having to make the choice between pursuing a career in medicine, engineering or the army. “At the most, you could become a bank manager or an IAS officer,” he recalls. So, when the teenager announced to his parents that he’d like to be a chef, their displeasure was an expected reaction. They didn’t take him seriously till he ventured into the famed culinary haven, Bawarchi Tola, and took up an apprenticeship under kebab maestro Ustad Munir Ahmed. For eight months, all he did was grind spices and dry charcoal, but Brar was thrilled with his job, and his family finally relented.

Things moved rather speedily from there — way quicker than they do for most chefs. By the age of 25, he had risen swiftly up the ranks and was appointed Executive Chef at the Radisson in Noida. “A lot of people still don’t believe that,” Brar tells me. “The norm these days is to believe in younger talent, but at that time, you wouldn’t get such high posts before you turned 35-36.”