5 celebrity chefs and how they made it big

Are you one among the many whose heart and mind is ruled by your stomach? Does having a mouth-watering dessert or simple home cooked meal brighten your generally slow moving and dull day? Then you, my friend (just like me), are a food-a-holic.

India with its wide variety, flavours and exquisite cuisines is a food lover’s delight and this love for food is the reason why channels like Food Food or shows like MasterChef are widely popular here. So much is the craze for food in our country that, these days people are known to even download apps wherein they can learn how to cook different food items and cuisines.

Food in our country is not just something to help deal with our hunger pangs, it is sort of a religion here. And bringing a dash of surprise, intrigue and culinary know-how to our dining table are chefs. India is known to be the birth place of some extremely talented and famous chefs.

So, for all the people who want to become a chef or simply want to know how these celebrity chefs made it big we share some facets of their lives with you.

You may know them by name and their face but may not know how they became what they are today – The people with the magic ingredient to make normal food sumptuous and delicious.

Vikas Khanna

Born in Amritsar, Vikas candidly admits that his childhood has been full of food and he got inspired to cook from his grandmother and in her kitchen he spent a considerable part of his younger years.Most of you may immediately recognize him to be the handsome host of the show MasterChef India. But a majority of you may not know that Vikas Khanna was born with misaligned legs as well as feet and wasn't able to run until he was 13.

He is known to have started his own banquet as well as catering business at the tender age of 17 by the name Lawrence Gardens. He then went on to join the Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration wherein as part of his internships/training sessions he worked under renowned chefs of hotels such as Leela Kempenski, Oberoi Sheraton, Taj Group of Hotels etc. He further went to complete his higher education at Culinary Institute of America, Cornell University and New York University and the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu, Paris

Awarded a Michelin Star for his restaurant Junoon by Michelin Guide, Vikas has authored several books such as The Spice Story of India, Modern Indian Cooking and Flavors First.

Khanna is not only a good cook but he is extremely good looking as well which got him to winning titles such as “Sexiest Man Alive” by People magazine and “New York’s Hottest Chef” in a poll conducted by Eater.

Sanjeev Kapoor

A student of Institute of Hotel Management (IHM) Pusa, Catering Technology & Applied Nutrition, Kapoor has often admitted that during his first days in the kitchen he felt he had gotten trapped because of the long work hours.Born in Haryana, Sanjeev Kapoor always wanted to be different and becoming a chef was not his first preference. He wanted to join the School of Planning and Architecture and even made it to the waitlist, however, he ended up joining the hotel management industry because no one in his family was a part of this industry and he wanted to be different.

He started his career as a kitchen trainee with ITDC in 1984 and thereafter worked with many large and established hotels and hotel chains. But Kapoor’s claim to fame was when he starred in the TV show – Khana Khazana. The show is known to be one of the longest run shows (18 years) of its genre in Asia with more than 500 million viewers in 120 countries till 2010. He is also the first chef in the world to launch his own cookery channel – Food Food, a High Definition television channel dedicated to food.

He is greatly inspired by recipes shared by Shashi Kumar Badmera and as per him Shashi is definitely the best cook in the world.

Tarla Dalal

Born in Pune, Tarla Dalal moved to Bombay after her marriage in 1960. When asked by a leading daily on whether she was always a good cook from childhood she was quoted to say, “I was 20 years old when I got married and could cook only DBRS.” When asked what was DBRS? She replied – Dal Bhat Roti Sabzi. She started learning to cook like every other young girl and went on to become one of the most recognisable faces in India when it came to cooking.

One of the most popular and celebrated chefs in India, Tarla Dalal started her cooking career in 1966 when she started taking cooking classes at her home. Her cooking skills and guidance were widely applauded by people and you could often hear people say – If you want to get your daughter married, send her to Mrs. Dalal's classes.

With motivation from people around her she authored her first cook book in 1974 called The Pleasures of Vegetarian Cooking which went on sell more than 1,50,000 copies.

She has penned down a total of 170 cook books which have been translated in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati and even in Russian and Dutch.

Jiggs Kalra

In an interview with The Hindu when this celebrated chef was asked who was he born as he candidly replied, “Jaspal Inder Singh Kalra who did not have a beard” and that Jiggs was the result of a time-honoured tradition of public schools to have nicknames for all newcomers.

Being from an army background as well as from a family that loves to eat, Jiggs is often quoted as saying that his father, Brigadier Kalra, could tell from the smell of the subzi being served about the vintage of the ghee used in it.

He claims that cooking reflects a state of your mind, if you feel happy the food you cook will also taste good. He says that he may be a good chef but his mother was and will always be the best Army-housewife cook and it is from her that he developed an interest in cooking.

Often termed to be the “Father of India foodies” and “India’s Culinary Ambassador”, Jiggs started writing restaurant reviews and other food related pieces for Illustrated Weekly and Evening News of India in the 1970s. Probably the only Asian who has been inducted in the Gourmet Hall of Fame, Jiggs Kalra founded the popular Indian restaurant chain – Punjab Grill.

Rashmi Uday Singh

Her claim to fame was when she became the first author in India to pen down a city restaurant guide in 1997. She also went on write the first ever “Nightlife guide to Mumbai" and recently was in the headlines for authoring the world's first vegetarian guide to Paris.Award winning author, Rashmi Uday Singh, completed her BA English honours from LSR after which she pursued LLB from Government Law College (Mumbai University) followed by joining Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management, Mumbai University and then completing her diploma in journalism from Bombay School of Journalism. Rashmi is an IAS officer of the 1977 batch and worked at the Indian Revenue Service as a deputy commissioner and quit her post after 15 years to follow her passion to be part of the newsprint and television industry for which she went on to train with BBC in London.

She has written around 34 books on people, nightlife and food. She also regularly hosts shows on television and even writes columns on a regular basis for Chennai Times and Bombay Times.