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Vikas Khanna remains true to his roots, and his ‘honest’ cooking has won him many admirers as well as a slew of awards
The little boy, named Kalu, was born with clubfoot, a congenital defect where an infant’s legs are misaligned and are usually turned inwards. Despite corrective surgery when he was just two weeks’ old, he could not walk properly, let alone run because of the heavy wooden shoes he had to wear even after the operation. And how he hated those ugly shoes which made him a butt of many jokes. The only time these came in handy was during Diwali, when he could stomp on crackers without the fear of getting hurt. He could not play with his peers because of his misaligned feet, so his feet turned towards his biji’s (grandmother) kitchen. The kitchen became his solace and refuge, both. And by the time he turned seven, food had become his obsession and cooking an escape. Though the seeds of his profession were sown in a misfortune, it did not deter the little boy from Amritsar from soaring to great heights. Meet Vikas Khanna, an award-winning Michelin star chef, restaurateur, food writer, filmmaker, humanitarian and a celebrity TV host (MasterChef India, Junior MasterChef India and Twist of Taste). By the age of 13 his braces came off but the passion for cooking had taken hold. Recalls Vikas fondly: "My mother took me to the Company Bag after the wooden shoes were removed. She asked me to run, but the long years in heavy wooden shoes had made it impossible. But I can't even walk, I told her. ‘That's okay because you were born to fly, came her determined reply'." While still in school, with the ultimate dream of opening a chana-bhatura shop, Vikas started a catering business called Lawrence Gardens Banquets. The clientele was the kitty party crowd. At 17, his uncle took him to the 24-hour coffee shop at ITC's Mauraya Sheraton for a midnight buffet. This was the first time Vikas realised that food could be an art too. With that benchmark in mind, Vikas sought admission to the Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration, Manipal. After graduating in 1994, he worked at the Leela Kempinski, Mumbai for three years. But the lure and pull of Amritsar was too strong and he came back to his catering business.
Vikas was happy catering to the kitty party crowd. But his brother Nishant had big dreams for him or rather the ultimate one for most Punjabis — the great American Dream. Influenced by Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull, the Punjabi kabootar flew to the American shores in December 2000 to perform on the world stage. The initial years were hard — from staying at homeless shelters to distributing flyers at Central Park, he did it all before he got his first break in 2007 at Gordon Ramsay's show The Kitchen Nightmares. Vikas shares an interesting story on how he got the break. He was working in Tandoor Palace in Wall Street, a hole-in-the-wall kind of place. "A pregnant girl Jenny used to come there daily for my uttapam. The days it rained I would pack her an extra uttapam so that she did not have to come again, given her condition. Jenny was working with Gordon Ramsay, who was working to turn around an Indian restaurant for his show. Ramsay asked Jenny if she knew of any Indian chef. She told Ramsay that she knew this guy who was not a top chef yet. "But when you see him and he will talk about food, you'll say thank god he kept the food alive." And that is how Vikas got his first break, despite not knowing how to speak English the American way. The episode was cast on the Easter day in 2007 and over 300 million people saw it. "Though I was speaking English but still there were English subtitles on the screen," recalls Vikas with a smile. Not that it deterred him. The show was also seen by his old friend Vipul Malik with another friend of Malik’s, Rajesh Bhardwaj, also watching it. The three met soon after and thus the foundations of Junoon, Vikas's restaurant in New York, were laid. In December 2009, exactly nine years after he landed in the USA, Junoon was launched. And within 10 months of its opening Junoon got its first of the four Michelin stars (Junoon was awarded its fourth Michelin star in a row this year). Even after achieving the American Dream, Vikas was still not satisfied — for his kindred spirit had taken to the basic American philosophy of creativity, like a duck to water. "Americans have a deep-rooted love for creation. They are never satisfied and always looking for something new. I like that passion. Creativity is so crucial, especially in a cutting-edge business like mine." However, like his accent, this 'Ambarsari' boy has not forgotten his roots and his cooking reflects that honesty. He will not compromise on the authenticity of the food he cooks but will add a little element of surprise. The ingredients may be foreign but the masala remains Indian. His gujiya may contain a stuffing of blueberries and be called a crescent but the essence and taste will remain desi. Says Vikas, "Americans are totally crazy about new things. Why should they pay me $ 300 for a tasting menu if it offers the same old stuff? So I try to give them dishes which are totally out of the box." Despite many achievements, his dissatisfaction made him realise that his space in physical reality was limited. This discontent made him turn to books and realise the limitless potential of literature. For him a book embodied culture. He wanted to write and preserve that culture for future generations. And thus began his love-affair with writing. AyurVeda: The Science of Food and Life was his first book. But it wasn't till his sixth book, Flavors First, that the world sat up and took notice. The book went on to win awards and accolades even by the likes of Martha Stewart. Till date Vikas has written 16 books on varied subjects. Interestingly, his 17th is an illustrated book, The Magic Rolling Pin, about a small boy Jugnu. The book, autobiographical in nature, is being launched on Children's Day this week. According to Vikas, "My biggest guru has been Salman Rushdie. I learnt something very crucial from him. Rushdie doesn't have a TV in his house. So I asked him why. Rushdie replied, 'You want to invest in what you want to be remembered for. I don't want a name in posterity for watching TV.'" Inspired, Vikas came back and threw out his own TV. Now he focussed on something more crucial — literature. He started reading. That was in 2003; in 2004, his first book was published. He plans to write at least 50 books. And his books are not just a collection of recipes but a cultural trove for posterity. His 18th book is already slotted for an early 2015 launch. It is called World Feast and is based on world cuisines. When Ramsay said "You are far too good looking to be a chef", Vikas was instantly dubbed as the poster boy of Indian food in America. He has appeared on the cover of many prestigious magazines, including Men's Health, where he showed off his perfect six-pack abs. He trained hard for three months, not touching salt because he wanted to prove to the Americans that Indian food can be healthy too and was not synonymous with the greasy curries they usually associate it with. People's Magazine called him the Sexiest Man Alive in 2011. This eligible bachelor is still to settle down — the day he does, there would many a broken hearts in the legion of female fans. Till then, his work is his life. The little boy named Kalu has become a Jugnu spreading smiles and cheer through his food.
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