Chef Vikas Khanna opens up about late sister's vision for his New York restaurant: ‘She taught me…’

Vikas Khanna credits his late sister Radhika for shaping his New York restaurant Bungalow, which recently earned the Michelin 2024 Bib Gourmand Award.

Michelin star Indian chef Vikas Khanna has opened up about the success of his new New York restaurant after the death of his sister Radhika Khanna who helped create the establishment with him. His restaurant Bungalow, which was envisioned by his late sister Radhika Khanna, has recently won the Michelin 2024 Bib Gourmand Award.

Chef Vikas Khanna's New York restaurant Bungalow recently won the Michelin 2024 Bib Gourmand Award.(File)

In an interview with CNN, Khanna talked about the way his sister inspired his dreams, revealing that most of the decor for the restaurant was planned and commissioned by her from her deathbed. A fashion designer, author, and entrepreneur, Radhika passed away in 2022 after battling lupus for many years.

"I was unsure if Bungalow should be a successful restaurant or a big one. She wanted it to be a deeper restaurant," Khanna revealed, adding that her death was like losing his "soulmate" and "only friend".

On the restaurant being labelled his baby, Khanna explained: “It's my daughter," adding that the restaurant's energy or ‘shakti’ was feminine.

Be a cook, not a chef

Sharing his sister's vision for the restaurant, Khanna recalled the 2003 story of his birthday when his sister took him to a luxury restaurant hoping the chef would come and meet him. However, they were turned away and told that the chef only meets those who order “tasting menus.”

“I failed,” Radhika had told her brother, who said he thought it was his best-ever birthday.

On her deathbed, Khanna said, Radhika remembered that meal and asked him to promise never to be like that chef. “We had great food in that restaurant, but we were made to feel less. Un-restaurant’ yourself", he said quoting her.

Radhika, he said, wanted him to welcome everyone the way he did when he was a “cook” and never let his chef life make him arrogant.

Watch the chat here:

‘This is not a food business’

“She taught me... not my degrees and my Michelin stars, or what I was wearing on my head... She taught me a whole new perspective on a restaurant,” he added.

“She taught me that this is not a food business. You can alleviate people of their pain and loneliness, nostalgia. This is what food has to do,” he said.

Talking about his newest achievement, the Indian chef said moments like these make him miss her the most. “I would call my sister when something big happened, and she would go, ‘Mera sher! You're gonna show the world!’”