Vikas Khanna talks Indian food and cooking for Bollywood stars and world leaders

Gulf News

Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/2kWgXji  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos  Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  Celebrated Indian chef Vikas Khanna talks Indian food, cooking for Bollywood stars and world leaders such as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his new restaurant in Dubai called Kinara.  #food #chef #VikasKhanna

Transcript

00:00I just feel that food has to be almost like emotionally, it has to evoke you emotionally.

00:09Hi, I'm in conversation with chef and restauranteur Vikas Khanna. He's the master of all trades

00:16because he's written more than 30 books. He's made his own movie, a feature-length movie,

00:22written a book about it and he's cooked for the world leaders, politicians, celebrities.

00:26His claim to fame is actually legendary and he was also voted as one of the sexiest

00:32male by Cosmopolitan. And I must say that we'll not lead with that. He's a good chef.

00:37That's it. Okay, I was waiting for that.

00:40Here we are sitting now. It's called Kinara. Not easy, is it? It's like,

00:45are you having labor pains right now? Difficult to give birth to this?

00:49I'm always going to have labor pains. I'm in constant state. I'm not very,

00:54I'm not very a confident person. And I feel that like, you know, kids like us don't,

01:00maybe come from, we don't get an opportunity to be on the world stages like this. And somehow,

01:05some days you feel that this can't be me. And some days you're like, okay, let this be me.

01:11But I'm always scared. I'm always overcautious with the menu.

01:15It's always good, right? To be overcautious, then be overconfident.

01:19But I also make one dish 40 times, because here everything is original. So 40 times like,

01:24okay, you got this right last time. I said, no, you don't do it till you don't get it wrong.

01:28You've got to do it till you always get it right. Because you're so trained in practice that in

01:34your subconscious mind, you put that dish together, you know exact sauces, consistencies,

01:38the garnishes, and you can almost do it blindly. I'm never going to reach that point. I'm always

01:43going to be unconfident. I'm always going to be feeling okay, I can add one more element

01:47to surprise people. It was a difficult position, you know, because Indian food was still rising in

01:52America. And in some way, you know, you were one of the first colored person of color to get a

01:58Michelin star. So it was a, it was a lot of pressure. A lot of pressure, but people will be

02:05like, how did this even happen? I'm like, because you trained, you were organized, you had the right

02:12people to work with. And you were unconfident. That's the key, is it? You were vulnerable. And

02:19you were because of that, you were very alert. And you were very active. And that's when you

02:24produce so much of literature and works because you're always unconfident. You're always like,

02:30I can do something more, I can do something better. I remember you saying that you have to

02:34think about persistence and passion as the two things that are very key. You're still persistent?

02:39100%. People think that, you know, why would you make things so complicated? What do you want to

02:44do? Why can't you just serve it with, you know, regular fare the way you do it? I just feel that

02:48food has to be almost like an emotionally, they have to, it has to evoke you emotionally. Sometimes

02:54when you take a bite and you feel, you sense it that, oh my god, these people have traveled,

02:59this is, you're making me travel through this taste buds. That's why I was very like, we're

03:04going to do dishes where people feel that they're familiar flavors, but the combinations

03:10all what you have, you've tasted everything individually before. But putting everything

03:14together in this kind of form and shape, I thought that was interesting. Right. And in Dubai, though,

03:19there are many chefs, Michelin star chefs who come, they set up a restaurant. And very soon,

03:23there's no consistency and therefore they shut shop. It has happened before. Aren't you also

03:28scared because of the same thing? Because there was one thing where a restaurant is there one

03:32day and five months later, we go back, it's not there. And nobody even remembers it closing down

03:37thing. There's a huge launch. And all of that. It's just a reality check. I'm just telling you.

03:41So what are you doing differently? It doesn't happen. And I'm not being a realist, or an

03:46alarmist. I'm just asking. Absolutely, you're being just being very practical about this. And

03:50we've seen some of the biggest chefs come to the right. And after a few months, the begin,

03:55it begins to fade out. I need to worry more about that if I was doing a lot of gimmicks.

04:00If I was doing a lot of gimmicks, which we feel that it's not classical base of it,

04:04when things are classical base, a foundation of it, you know that they will have more longevity.

04:09Even the basic food you've tasted, you've just had chai and bengal kebab. I would come back for

04:15it. You would be able to come back for it. And eventually, if you have people who are heading

04:19this right, I know, I just love the way I just feel that a country like a small place like this,

04:28which has more than 100 nationalities, coexisting, this is amazing to put your food

04:34out there. I just I'm so intrigued by that idea of coexistence of so many different cultures and

04:39palates coming together. Everything is temporary. That's what His Holiness the Dalai Lama told me

04:43once he's saying everything is temporary. It depends on how long the temper temperamental

04:49ism lasts. If there's a word like that, what is the shelf life of that being temperament?

04:55I just feel that I just think sometimes the restaurants are there sometimes they disappear,

04:59but the impact is a dining experience they can give somebody once in a lifetime.

05:04When people come to you, what is it when you cook for like world leaders and celebrities?

05:08Do you present your dishes as you just do you ask them what they want? Or do you just cook?

05:13You want to give them a slice of what Vikas Kanna is all about on a plate?

05:16Complex. This is very complex. Sometimes, you know, you're doing stuff. And I remember,

05:21sometimes they give you the lines of the brackets. I remember Prime Minister Modi was

05:27coming to New York, and he said, I want food, which I want the world to say that

05:33only an English chef will cook like this. So we did all the 26 festivals of India major festivals

05:38and we did one one element from it became festival, we change the total form and look of it

05:43how the food will look like and be presented on the plate. It was a it was three months of menus,

05:48which were two and four. Yes, sometimes they tell us what to do. And sometimes we say that,

05:52you know, we have this amazing idea. Why don't you look at it, that we can do food like this.

05:57But some of the world leaders are such simple eaters that they make. Yeah, they're the most

06:02simplest of feeders. Like, okay, can you give us lentils and rice? I'm like, okay, fantastic. But

06:09you will do my style and do add, we just want home cooked like a mom makes, because some of

06:14them are so intense and so focused on their work that they need to not worry about these things.

06:19They just want the comfort of a home cooked meal, which makes them feel safe. And I think

06:23which we all do that. I think you should never underestimate the value of home cooked food.

06:28Absolutely. Most of the chefs can't do that kind of cooking. Because why can't you keep it simple?

06:33Why? What is so difficult about that? Absolutely. But you know, what happens is that there's another

06:37other line for this also, is that, you know, if I was doing a simple dish, and I'm giving you that

06:42people don't feel that they need to pay to go to a restaurant for special experience. So when

06:46they're coming to a restaurant, they need to be, they need to have a new experience with the palate

06:51and the mind. And I'm a believer of that. But yet for comfort food, you will see the some,

06:58there's some elements of comfort within that. Are you a filmmaker, cook, or a writer first?

07:03Or a host? My God, you do a lot of things. When do you sleep?

07:06I'm an insomniac volunteer.

07:08Ah, there you go. I knew it.

07:11I just think that not people get a voice in major countries like India and America,

07:19which are very big influences to how we read and how we see art. And to have the platform like this,

07:26and I think it's, I don't know how long would this last. But when I'm doing it, I also want

07:30to make sure that I do everything to write to my capacity, not the best. There's nothing as best.

07:36To my ability and capacity. I did not understand the power of filmmaking. I'll be honest with you.

07:42I was doing documentaries for many years. Since 2009, I've been doing documentaries.

07:46I made documentaries on religion and food, food, food in a different sense,

07:50food and collectivity forms. I did all those works. But when I wrote this novel, The Last

07:56Color, I was like, people would, we have editors from Iran and from America and Russia. And they're

08:02like, this is one of the most powerful stories you've written. This could be a big reform. I'm

08:06like, nobody's gonna watch it if I make a movie. And we reached out to some directors and they

08:11said, no, this story doesn't make sense. I'm like, okay, it really makes sense to me. I'm

08:15gonna make it. You just decided to take charge, take agency. Yeah, I do not know how the other

08:20way around. I just feel that planning is necessary. But execution is the key. I don't need to prove

08:24myself as a movie maker. I don't call myself a movie maker. I'm a storyteller who got inspired

08:30and got carried away and got India's best actress to act. She's amazing.

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