‘Not exciting enough to be just serving food at this stage and age’: Chef Vikas Khanna

“This has been a very long process. It’s been almost five years since I started working on this. My sister (Radha, who passed away in 2022) chose the idea of the Konark wheel. Then, outsourcing it to the artisans was a long process. We couldn’t do the unveiling last year because I had some personal issues and couldn’t focus on getting it on Times Square,” Khanna told indianexpress.com in an exclusive telephonic interview.

According to Khanna, the name and the idea were all done by “my sister”. “This was the final project that she wanted to work with me on. She had some vision of Indian restaurants and their representation in America. Instead of being Americanised, we need to bring forth our Indian ascents as a true heritage and community. A piece of Konark temple in the world’s most iconic location,” he said.

The piece holds a lot of importance for Khanna, who visited Odisha for the first time in 2008. “Everything about architecture, food, design, rituals, and fabrics changed (after my visit). Odisha is a country by itself. The beauty of the people of Odisha and its culture is that it is so majestic and yet so humble. I remember visiting Konark Temple early in the morning and my heart skipped a few beats to see this kind of beauty. That is why it is so important for me to shed light on these artisans on the global stage,” he said.

Vikas Khanna shares a few glimpses (Source: Vikas Khanna)

Not surprisingly, the unveiling drew thousands to the majestic 4,000-pound artwork. “I feel as an artist, as an Indian living in America for half of my life, it is very important that I continue to work towards bringing more awareness to Indian culture, cuisines, rituals, everything. It is also my life’s mission to spread the message that Indian food is not separate from Indian culture and Indian design, architecture, history, or culture. So everything has to be hand in hand to present Indian food in a perfect way,” he said.

Opening up about what went on in his mind during the unveiling, Khanna recollected, “I have a video of mine crying like a baby. The shipment came and went straight to the storage. I didn’t previously visit the site or storage, which would take at least 15 people to open this stone piece and then wrap it up again. I actually saw it the moment the world saw it. It was the same emotion of awe, beauty, integrity. My mind was totally frozen at the time we unveiled it to the world.”

As the piece was transported, it had a small breakage but Khanna decided against fixing it. “There is a small breakage on the piece on the top right. Everybody said, let’s fix it. And my response was, No! It is a scar. It talks about the stone piece’s journey. I feel that has to be maintained,” he said.

The chef who wears many hats also appreciated the efforts of the artisans. “What killed me was their humility and their integrity to work through the pandemic. This was the main work that they were doing through the main years of the pandemic. I feel very proud that they chose me with the belief that I will present their work to the world with the highest integrity and with justice to the families, the temple, and their work,” Khanna said.

The artwork will be placed alongside four other artistic works in his upcoming flagship restaurant in New York City in 2024. “There are five pieces in the restaurant which focus on different parts of India representing the north, east, west, south, and centre. Konark represents the east; another piece that is already here is from the people who do all the repairs in Amritsar’s Golden Temple, then we have a majestic net-based work from some of the descendants of the people who built the Taj Mahal. We also have this beautiful black granite work from Udupi’s Krishna Temple,” said Khanna, adding that a silver 200-kg door is his “tribute to Jain temples”, which is the fifth work. “The entire door has been sketched and created as an inspiration from the Jain temple.”

Interestingly, there is one more sculpture, of a Trimurti sitting on a throne of a peacock. “Trimurti represents birth, life, and end,” he said.

According to Khanna, the initiative is an attempt to create a different benchmark. “We need to understand that most of the cooking colleges when we were studying did not teach Indian cuisine to us. We were only taught to work in big hotels and focus on continental cooking like French and American. That was the benchmark. Now since the rise of Indian chefs, there have been a lot of questions in these colleges that we have to start from the grassroots,” said Khanna, who is one of the judges on MasterChef India.

Vikas Khanna on the idea (Source: Vikas Khanna)

“I can promote the cuisine on a global stage as much as possible but if we don’t have a trained next generation, it won’t be an asset for us. Moving forward, we need to go on a much bigger scale—the way the French, Japanese or Italians have done,” he added.

Restaurants in New York are generally small spaces. So Khanna decided to make an amalgamation of five different and distinct regions to draw people to India. “For me, if I had to just serve food, it is not exciting enough at this stage and age. I need to bring something much more to the table to the worldwide diners. When you look at these pieces in a restaurant, you feel inspired to visit India,” he said.

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