When Vikas Khanna was born in Amritsar in 1971, doctors told his mother, Bindu Khanna, that his feet were deformed and that he wouldn’t be able to walk or run. Bindu wouldn’t hear a word of it and took him to Delhi for further treatment. She said, “My son is not born to walk, he is born to fly.”
Sure enough, Vikas proved his mother right. Today, at 52, he is an award-winning Michelin-starred chef, restaurateur, author, filmmaker, and a judge on MasterChef India. Beyond his culinary achievements, he is also deeply committed to giving back. During the pandemic, he championed relief efforts through his Feed India initiative, serving over 50 million meals across the country.
His story is one of overcoming every adversity imaginable and never letting others bring him down.
As Vikas had clubfoot, he had to wear leg braces and later, wooden shoes. This made him a target for relentless bullying at school. “I was teased in school. Boys would call me ‘polio wala ladka’ (the boy with polio), and said that I was cursed due to my braces,” he shared in a TED talk.
While he didn’t find acceptance at school, he found solace and a sense of belonging in his grandmother’s kitchen. After school, he spent his time there, learning to cook from both his grandmother and mother. He also found comfort at the Golden Temple’s langar (community kitchen) in Amritsar, where he assisted in the kitchen.
“My grandmother told me that you are meant to be different,” he added in the same talk.
By the age of 13, he had learned the ropes of cooking and started helping his mother sell chole bhature to schools. He was the sous chef in his mother’s business, ‘Lawrence Garden’, a banquet hall.
Tragedy struck a decade later, when the banquets were crushed by local authorities, shattering their dreams. Heartbroken, Vikas moved to New York to start a new life.
In New York, he took on nearly 31 odd jobs, including washing dishes, cleaning and cooking in homes, working in delis, cafes, and restaurants. He even looked after dogs and cats. He also worked in several restaurants, opened a cooking school, and ran catering companies.
While working in a restaurant in Paris, the chef told him, “Black hands don’t cook, they only clean.” Khanna quit the next minute and vowed to show the chef what black hands can do! “I will achieve something one day,” he promised.
In 2010, he returned to New York and opened a restaurant called Junoon, earning a Michelin Star the next year.
Since then, Vikas has not looked back, taking Indian food and culture to the world. In 2024, he opened a restaurant ‘Bungalow’ in New York, which he calls his ‘last innings’ in the hospitality industry. Bungalow’s reservations were sold out in just 11 seconds!
“People can take everything from you, but not your pride and happiness,” he says.
Edited by Khushi Arora
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