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.
Comments