Consistent Flavours

Vineet Bhatia’s life has been dominated by cooking and travel – which makes him the ideal Guest of Honour at this month’s Business Traveller Middle East Awards.

They say our formative years leave an indelible mark on our characters – and that’s certainly the case with Vineet Bhatia, who will be Guest of Honour at the Business Traveller Middle East Awards 2017 in Palazzo Versace Dubai’s ballroom on April 23. His early passions in life were aeroplanes and his mother’s cooking.

“When I was a young child, I didn’t have an alarm clock. I didn’t need one. I was awakened at 6.30 each morning by the roaring engines of the DC-10 that took off from the airport near our house in Bombay,” said the world-renowned chef, who recently met HM Queen Elizabeth II in a reception at Buckingham Palace to celebrate the start of the UK-India Year of Culture. “I’d pass by a small flying club and stare endlessly at the Cessnas taking off and landing, marvelling at their speed and their aura of luxury.”

At 17, he took the national defence exam in hopes of joining the Air Force, but failed the physical part of the test. No matter, the travel seed was firmly planted – although the path to culinary stardom wasn’t smooth at first. “I never felt that I had a knack for it. My first few attempts at cooking on my own were downright failures,” he recalls.

But he persevered and the Oberoi group spotted his talent for his culinary passion, recruiting him as a trainee in 1988, and he remained there for three years learning all aspects of Indian cuisine.