Michelin-starred chef Vikas Khanna has paid tribute to Mumbai, the city of dreams, the one which taught him to dish up home-style culinary delights.
"Mumbai will never be separated from me because here I received the first ever big training. I did not know what Indian cuisine was all about, until I came here," says Khanna who launched his new cook book "Savour Mumabai" here recently.
The 42-year-old chef based in New York also hosted a cook-out session for the Culinary Club of the Imperial Hotel here during the launch.
"The book is about my homecoming. It is about when I came back to India after six-and-half years. And after coming back when I visited Bombay again, I realised that there was a forgotten Bombay, an untold Bombay, there was a Bombay which was only in my thoughts," Khanna says.
Mumbai, he points out hosts a melting pot of cuisines.
"The city was connecting me back to India in so many ways. Within just a block, I came across a Surat restaurant, a Konkani restaurant, restaurants inspired by Kerala, and Madras. And that, essentially is Bombay where the fusion of cuisines is common," he says.
In his book, Khanna invokes all the sentiments attached with the city which he says taught him to "cook with passion."
For the chef who has worked alongside leading names globally in the industry, picking up the apron at the start of each day is "not just about food" and "emotions could never be separated from food," even for an ordinary dish.
Khanna, whose restaurant in New York creates dishes that combine different distinct Indian cooking methods feels that it is his "pure Indian style of cooking and serving" that keeps his business going.
"When I traveled abroad I observed that people mind sharing food from another's plate. In my restaurant, I make sure people don't hesitate in sharing food from each others' plates like we do here in India," he says.
"People see me and ask, What is he doing in a kitchen?" says Khanna.
