Savour a new flavour

Nonika Singh

Among the many tales that spill out of celebrity chef Vikas Khanna’s charmed life, one that goes is when he met Gordon Ramsay the first time, he was asked — ‘are you in the movies’. Today the Michelin star chef may not be starring in a film, but sure has made one. 

The Last Color, based on his book, is  ready for release  and has been picked up by Palm Springs International film festival, indeed an honour that will make him rub shoulders with the best in the movie business.

Dash of colour

What explains his latest obsession is a chance story ‘gifted by Ganges’, during one of his trips to Varanasi. It hovers around the widows  and how colour was bereft from their lives. As a chef constantly juggling with colours, he was pained as much by their colourless lives as by the poignant tale of the little girl, a ropewalker. The narrative both tackles and shatters many  stereotypes. When the film’s teaser was first shown at the Cannes Film Festival this year, he was quizzed – ‘Oh! We thought you were a cook, didn’t know you were intelligent too.’ Such silly aspersions don’t make him see red. Criticism is something he has grown up with. Even if the ruthless  critics pan his film it would be okay. “I have followed the advice of Dalai Lama who told me — “to conquer another mountain, you have to come down from one.”  

Wouldn’t a food film be more befitting of his sensibilities. You bet, there is a lot of food in The Last Color  and there is one long appetising samosa sequence as well. Is that his favourite food? He counter-questions, “Whose isn’t?” 

Priceless treasure

If necessity be the mother of invention, innovation is a dire necessity in the world of cuisines. Food isn’t just food for the man who has put India on world’s culinary map. No talk of food can start or end without mention of his late grandmother. Memory, nostalgia, emotion...all of it went into the making of Utsav, a tome, which he is immensely proud of for varied reasons; notably its eco-friendly printing technique. Documenting India’s priceless recipes is  vital to him. “If what my grandmother cooked is lost today, you can only imagine how fast we are losing out on the treasured nuggets.”  Next is a project on tribal cuisines of north-east.  

Being Indian

When he went to the US he promised himself he would create only authentic Indian food, not fusion. India, he reminds you, is not just one thing but many. He, without a doubt, is a product of many cultures.  “I am not singular. Nobody in India can ever be.” In the same vein, when you ask him the secret behind those Michelin stars , he credits whole of India for his achievements. But he is not sitting smug on his laurels for didn’t beeje beseech him – ‘Never wear your crown of success at home’. 

One important ingredient in food,  he says , “Is discipline not passion..” It’s this unusual recipe to success that defines his forays and provides a meeting ground as well as a springboard for him to leap from one to another. A leap of faith it always is for the man whose documentary series Holy Kitchens explores the bond between food and faith.    

nonikasingh@tribunemail.com