Chef At Home: Meet private chef Harsh Dixit, who cooks for the country’s biggest celebrities and industrialists

Dixit, 37, rose to fame as Ranbir Kapoor’s private chef and now caters to the country’s cream of the crop, curating private dining at their homes. In his fifteenth year as a professional chef, he runs a Private Chefs Club that trains young chefs to cook for actors, sportsmen and industrialists. His premium chef services work on referral only.

What does the job entail? “You’re the head chef, the commis doing the veg prep, the butcher, the purchase manager and sometimes the dishwasher,” he says, seated at the dinner table where he also hosts a supper club for eight.

Dixit was six when he decided this was the life for him — hooked by watching his mother and grandmother. His nani’s reshmi kebab, made in an old oven with a boiler at the bottom, remains an early memory. Cooking shows by Sanjeev Kapoor and Gordon Ramsay fanned the fire further.

In 2008, he got into IHM, Goa and by his final year, he realised his pull was toward Asian food. “Dumplings and momos were my entry point,” he says. “I realised there are two cuisines Indians are perfectly happy eating every day, Indian and Chinese. You can ask me to eat fried rice or noodles seven days a week and I will happily do it.”
By 2011, he was kitchen operations trainee at Yauatcha, the Michelin-starred restaurant franchise, in Mumbai’s BKC (Bandra Kurla Complex). Over the next three years, he helped open the brand’s outposts in Bengaluru and Delhi. When growth stalled, he moved on.

The next chapter began almost accidentally. He prepared a roast chicken for a bodybuilder friend, cooked in its own fat without extra oil or butter. The friend’s comment on how he would have achieved his fitness goals had he had access to such healthy and tasty food, led Dixit to co-found Six Pack Meals, a premium subscription meal service for the fitness-conscious.

A chef batchmate from college, his bodybuilder friend, his girlfriend (a Swedish pro bodybuilder) and he came together to do about 150 meals a day, for about 30 clients, from 9 pm to 7 am, after which they send out food for delivery.

Their business grew through word of mouth and Instagram, attracting actors and athletes, encouraged by an organic endorsement from Hrithik Roshan. Clients included Ranbir Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor and Sidharth Malhotra. But the founders reached the end of the road in 2017 when the four separated ways. A second attempt to resurrect the idea folded within a year.

Then the call came that led him to private cheffing. It was from Ranbir Kapoor, an old Six Pack Meals client. “Technically, Shahid Kapoor was our first client,” he says.

By 2022, Dixit turned that solitary practice into something structured. His chefs now cook for cricketers on tour, actors between shoots and families wanting restaurant-calibre food at home. Today, their repertoire includes between 300 and 400 dishes, shaped not around cuisines but around the people eating them.

RECIPE:

Brie Bao

Ingredients

For the onion and leek jam
Onions (finely sliced) – 500 gm; Leeks (finely sliced) – 150 gm; Fresh bay leaf – 1; Butter – 30 gm; Hoisin sauce – 20 gm; Chinkiang vinegar – 2.5 gm; Potato starch – 2.5 gm; Spring onion greens (finely chopped) – 5 gm; Salt – 7.5 gm; Sugar – 7.5 gm

For bao dough
Red Lotus flour or refined flour – 200 gm; Sugar – 42 gm; Baking powder – 6 gm; Yeast – 4 gm; Milk – 95 ml; about 20 ml water

Chef Harsh Dixit’s signature dish Brie Bao (Express Photo by Amit Chakravarty)

Method

On medium flame, heat oil in a flat bottomed pan and add the onions; sweat them down. Add leeks, sugar and half the salt. Keep stirring
Halfway through, add butter and other half of the salt, continue until the mixture has caramelised. Once the onions have caramelised, add the starch, Chinkiang vinegar and hoisin sauce and let it cook until the starch gelatinises. Add the chopped spring onions
Line a perforated tray/ dim sum basket with oiled butter paper squares for individual baos
For bao dough, place the flour, yeast, sugar and baking powder in a mixing bowl. Pour in milk and water and start the stand mixer. If the dough feels dry and stiff, add a bit more water, one teaspoon at a time. Continue to knead at low for 12-15 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic. Knead the dough by hand for a couple minutes until smooth. The dough does not need to rest at this point
Immediately weigh and portion out dough balls. Roll each dough ball out and stuff with onion & leek jam
Place the bao in the perforated tray that you will steam it in. Cover it with a damp cloth to proof until it’s risen (30-45 mins). Spray it with water mid-way through resting. Steam for 6-8 mins
Cut a brie (cheese) wheel. Heat butter in a pan and sear the flat side of the steamed baos until golden brown. Put a slice of brie across the seared bao and torch it with a blow torch until the cheese gratinates.
Drizzle hot honey on the cheese and serve