Meeting Chef Vikas Khanna.

So I have another story to tell you today (A lot of you who have been reading my other blog purplehomes may have read this one before).

Almost a year and a half back, my sister conned me into going for the MasterChef Auditions (season 2). I obviously wanted to strangle her but then to amuse her, my family and friends I went for the first round. Before I knew it, it got way too serious and I was at Mumbai as part of the Top 100 for another round. Top 50 happened. And then I withdrew my name from the contest.

The time I was away at Mumbai was very hard for little Sara. And for me to be able to continue there meant being away for months which wasn't going to be easy for her and for me.  

But I came back happy and with many many beautiful memories.We talked, read, cooked and dreamt food. I met so many wonderful people and made two beautiful friends; Ruchira & Amrita.

But why am I telling you all this today.Because there was one thing that I missed being a part of. Meeting Chef Vikas Khanna (Since I withdrew my name from the show I didn't get the chance to meet him then).

And last week, I did exactly that.

All thanks to Karthik from the Indiblogger team. His team invited me for the launch of Vikas Khanna's book "Khanna Sutra : Food lessons in Love". This book is all about love and is a "book of recipes celebrating the tradition of sensuous eating". I loved the section "Aphrodisiacs" which is very well written and talks about in detail about the ingredients  that have wonderful scents, interesting flavors and textures.

The book was launched at the Shangri-La's Eros Hotel at Delhi.

For those of you who are not familiar with Vikas Khanna. Let me introduce you to him. He hails from Amritsar. Vikas dons several hats; he is an award winning Michelin starred Indian Chef,  a restaurateur, food writer and has hosted MasterChef India season 2 (Currently shooting season 3).

I haven't had a chance to cook my way through his book so the review is for another day. But today, I'd like to talk about what I got back with me after the launch. 

So the week after the launch I met my friends Ruchira & Amrita and Ruchira asked me so now that you have met Vikas what do you think about him. The first words that came to my mind were "humble and polite".

And humble and polite he was. 

I reached the venue a little early and there he was. He stood out and introduced himself! What a gracious man I thought. 

Later with nothing really to do I saw him talking to the staff there and he was pleasant.

Much later I saw him interacting with who I think were his relatives from Amritsar (I may be wrong though). He touched the feet of the elderly, backslapped those of his age and complained why they hadn't called him in ages and indulged the little ones by filling up their slam books.

Much much later during the bloggers interaction session he spoke about his journey from Amritsar to New York. From creating culinary masterpieces to writing about food. From hosting TV Shows to winning his Michelin star. From how putting Amritsar on the world map to eating dal chawal each night on the steps of Junoon. 

All this straight from the heart and without any trace of arrogance.

He also had beautiful stories to tell. 

He inspiration in life has been has grandmum. And he narrated a beautiful and touching story about how he is always the busiest at Diwali but last year for Diwali his grandmum asked him to come home. It took a lot of juggling at work to make that possible and that was the last time he saw her. She passed away a little later.

And I began to see tears form at the corners of his eye.

So I came back thinking being humble is way more cooler than being famous:) 

And remembering where you came from and the people who helped you get there is what truly famous people do.

Big thank you to Karthik and the Indiblogger team for inviting me. 

I can't end this review without telling you what Sara thought about the book and him. Here are her thoughts:

1. Why is that uncle's hand covered in chocolate? Well...

2. And how come I am getting to eat his face? Before you draw any conclusions I came back from the launch with chocolates that had Vikas's face printed on it.

3. After going through the cookbook she selected ALL the fish recipes to try and also the "Broccoli romanesco and mushroom black pepper soup". Now though she is a big fan of fish and boiled broccoli she has never ever shown any inclination to try both soups and mushrooms.So Vikas if she does warm up to both if I will definitely let you know:)

p.s. Well, I am not sure why I am looking completely zapped in that last snap, but who cares Mr. Khanna & Miss Grover are in the same frame.

Images : Personal Album 
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