To bite into a mango and get that sweet, sticky juice squirting all over your chin and clothes is to drift back into blissful childhood, into days that seemed to have no beginning and no end.
Browsing: Vikas Khanna
Neena Gupta just turned sixty – and she’s having the time of her life. As she says, “It’s a great time to be a woman in the film industry!”
Calling all yoga devotees! It’s the International Day of Yoga and your chance to learn more about this healthful life-affirming practice which is so highly regarded around the world.
You can take the Indian out of India – but you can never take India out of the Indian. The recent Covid-19 crisis in their homeland has galvanized Indian immigrants and their American-born children to action.
Vikas Khanna’s debut feature film ‘The Last Color’ is now streaming on Amazon Prime – an emotional feel-good film for our stressful times.
Restaurants are some of our favorite places, our hideaways, our escape with friends. Yet in the time of coronavirus, they lie empty – a stark still life of empty chairs and tables, as millions of New Yorkers self-quarantine and practice social distancing in this strange new world.
New York is full of surprises where unexpected things happen and you get to meet the most unexpected people. I certainly didn’t expect to be eating a home-cooked meal by Master Chef Vikas Khanna served in his 10th floor apartment near the United Nations. Nor did I expect to be eating it with the iconic Pakistani filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy whose powerful work has won her a gaggle of awards including two Oscars and six Emmys.
India is the land of many cultures, many people – and many foods. Vikas Khanna’s ‘Utsav’ captures the many festivals of India and the unique dishes associated with each religion and region. Here’s a chance to experiment with different dishes and celebrate all the wonderful festivals of India!
For most Indian immigrants the two most mouth-watering words in the English language are “Indian Food”. Last summer I enjoyed a great culinary journey back to India: I visited Anjappar, a noted ‘military hotel’ in Chennai famous for its non-vegetarian Chettinad cooking , and also the iconic Sarvanna Bhavan beloved for its dosas, uttappams and other vegetarian delights. I next ate my favorite street foods at Kailash Parbhat, my family’s favorite Sindhi eatery in the by-lanes of South Mumbai. Final stop was of course the classic Moti Mahal in my hometown of Delhi where I’d first tasted the divine makhani murg or butter chicken in my childhood.
Yet you’ll be surprised to know that I visited all these treasure troves of regional cuisine without ever boarding a flight or stepping out of America!
Vikas Khanna’s new book ‘Indian Harvest: Classic and Contemporary Vegetarian Dishes’ begins and ends with his poems. No, it is not a book of poems but a recipe book which is part memoir, part travelogue and part encyclopedia, as well as his repertoire of traditional and modern vegetarian recipes.
What’s better than reading a book? Having the author read it to you! At the Indo-American Arts Council Literary Festival 2015 at Hunter College, book-lovers binged on new books, authors old and new and discussions on everything from the state of the kitchen to the state of the world.
Vikas Khanna has scaled new gastronomic heights with his latest cookbook, ‘Return to the Rivers – Recipes and memories of the Himalayan River Valleys’, written with Andrew Blackmore-Dobbyn. This is a wonderful read not only for passionate cooks but also for those newbie chefs whose idea of cooking is heating up the remains of last night’s takeout. The stories will draw you into the kitchen…
Like a breath of fresh air from the Himalayan river valleys here are some mouth-watering recipes from Vikas Khanna’s new book ‘Return to the Rivers’ (with Andrew Blackmore-Dobbyn). Vikas Khanna traveled to India’s Himalayan valleys as well as countries of Tibet, Bhutan and Nepal to gather a taste of dishes rarely eaten in the West. Here are a few tantalizing bites – and recipes.
Recipes from the Langar meal, blended with blessings from Gurdwaras in the US and India
There are not too many chefs who can cook for humans and the gods with equal panache but New York chef Vikas Khanna is certainly one of them. He has helped cook langar at the Golden Temple, exchanged hugs with Amma and also created gourmet dishes at the high-end New York restaurant, Junoon. Not to mention cooking a Satvic meal at the White House!
Yet this celebrity chef started out unsung and unknown in a simple, middle-class family in Amritsar. Growing up, Vikas’ life was different from that of other kids who would be running around, playing cricket and climbing trees. He had a disability as his feet were not aligned.
“Where I found my shelter was in the kitchen. Simple, home-cooked meals became like prasad for me, and Biji, my grandmother, my priest. She didn’t teach me recipes, she taught me the power of food to heal, to connect people.”
New York’s own rock star of an Indian chef, Vikas Khanna, is certainly going places. India, to be precise!
He is the new host and judge of Star Plus TV’s popular show Master Chef India Season 2 and is going to get a lot of eyeballs with the show which can be seen in India and the diaspora. The second season showcases different cooking styles and presentation of food, using Vikas Khanna’s food philosophy of fresh ingredients juxtaposed in innovative ways.
“This dish is one of the favorites on our appetizer list at Junoon. Its origins are in Goan cooking which evolved with considerable influence from the Portuguese who used Goa as a trading port for many years” Chef Vikas Khanna of Junoon
For Indian food lovers, this is the equivalent of Foodie Heaven! An opportunity to taste the food of not one, not two but 13 noted Indian chefs – all under one roof. The noted chefs include names which are familiar to fans of Indian cuisine – Floyd Cardoz, Vikas Khanna, Jehangir Mehta, Hemant Mathur, Prasad Chirnomula, Hari Nayak, Maneet Chauhan ,Walter D’Rozario and Peter Beck, with Sanjeev Kapoor flying in from India.
This would have been an unimaginable scenario a few decades back but now is a done deal, thanks to the Varli Food Festival being held in New York City on April 7 at the Altman Building in Chelsea.
Ah, foodies! When we’re not eating or cooking or fantasizing about food, we’re shopping for eats, obscure and exotic spices and the latest cooking contraptions. And when we are not doing all of that, we’re watching cooking shows on the Food Network or salivating over food blogs on the Internet. And forget about casting our votes for the president, we can now actually have a say in who becomes America’s Hottest Chef! Now that’s powerful – and universe changing!
Eater, the popular foodie website, has anointed Vikas Khanna of Junoon the hottest chef in New York, based on voting by its readers. That’s really a delicious choice because Vikas is a creative chef with some wonderful dishes to his credit.
A decade ago it would have been unimaginable that the beat of bhangra drums would be heard reverberating from the hundred-year-old New York Public Library, the city’s Beaux Arts landmark building, until the late hours of the night.
Well, this too came to pass with the grand gala concluding the two-day International Sikh Film Festival where power people, artists and film-makers gathered to celebrate not only the cinema arts but the role of Sikhs in every sphere of life…