Beyond Michelin stars: Finding why money and awards no longer matter for Chef Vikas Khanna

At 4:30 PM every day, before The Bungalow opens its doors to the guests, Chef Vikas Khanna takes a brief, intentional pause amid the chaotic, high-stakes prep in the kitchen for a quiet moment of prayer.

For Chef Khanna, this daily ritual is the anchor of his existence in one of the world's most brutal restaurant markets, New York. Having earned laurels in the culinary world and beyond - from garnering Michelin stars, writing acclaimed books, directing films, leading one of the largest food relief drives in history, to now being featured on TIME's 2026 TIME100 - he has reached a rare pinnacle.

Yet, rather than chasing endless expansion, he is asking a different question: What gets you out of bed when you've already achieved everything?

The 4:30 ritual of gratitude

In the tough hospitality industry, which - as Khanna says - demands presence "every single night, in sickness and in health, for 16 hours a day", his energy no longer comes from the pursuit of accolades.

“Every day I open the door at 4:30 to pray. I feel God has given me one more day to serve my country and my people,” Khanna told LiveMint in a recent interview.

“I take it very differently because after a certain point, money is not your motivation. Awards or recognition are not your motivation. You have to find a new motivation to wake up every day and fight for something.”

Rejecting the billion-dollar empire

The modern culinary success is often measured by scale. The standard trajectory for a celebrity chef involves aggressively expanding their footprint—launching global chains, franchising concepts, and building massive hospitality groups. Khanna is intentionally walking away from that blueprint.

“Everybody wants to have 6 billion restaurants, a $2 billion empire. I don't have to fight for that. God gave me everything,” he said with candour.

Chef Khanna said that his goal is to manage his one restaurant so perfectly that 1.5 billion people can look at it and feel truly represented. For him, creating something with "sustainable in beauty" means honouring its unique origins rather than endlessly replicating it for profit. "Its beauty lies in the fact that it was born completely differently from the rest of the world," he said.

Surviving the culinary Olympics

New York is unforgiving; wealthy and hyper-competitive, it is a place where a $10,000 dinner sits shoulder to shoulder with a $1 fast-food meal. Khanna said he views the city as the ultimate proving ground, a city devoid of proxies where the world's greatest chefs are expected to be on the floor every night.

"I always say this is the Olympics field," he explained. "In that field, if you get the gold medal, it gives a lot of players and athletes the push to work harder."

He believes that if Indian cuisine can secure its place at the top of this platform, New York will give the rest of the world permission to embrace and elevate it.

Embracing the alphabet of taste

For him, part of that elevation requires a surprising tactic: leaning into stereotypes. While many chefs bristle at the fact that Indian food is often reduced to dishes like butter chicken, Khanna sees these staples not as an insult, but as an essential entry point.

He drew a parallel to teaching a child to read, arguing that the introduction to any foreign culture starts with just a few recognisable "alphabets" before evolving into complex sentences. By letting go of the frustration surrounding culinary stereotypes, he frees up his energy to focus on what truly matters: making sure Indian food remains a vital, viral part of the global conversation.

The true legacy: Feed India

When evaluating his life's work, Khanna does not point to his restaurants or his media presence as his defining legacy. Instead, his proudest achievement stems from one of the darkest periods in recent history.

During the pandemic, his Feed India initiative orchestrated a massive humanitarian effort, proving the sheer power of collective action when the world was fractured. "Restaurants and Michelin stars will come, people will write more books, but to achieve something like that is very, very hard," he said. It is this spirit of large-scale, selfless collaboration that he wishes to preserve for the next generation.

The 10-year promise

All of this culminates in his current project, The Bungalow, which comes with a definitive expiration date. Bound by a promise made to his late sister, Radhika Khanna, the chef has committed exactly ten years to this venture.

“I will do it, but I won't do anything where I'm not present 100%,” he insisted. Acknowledging the physical toll of working 16-hour days, he accepted that by the end of this decade, he would have logged 50 years in the culinary profession.

Beyond that, his vision shifts from standing at the stove to investing in the next generation of artists and entrepreneurs through his hospitality group.

Until that decade is up, however, the routine remains unbroken. Every day, the doors will open at 4:30 PM. The prayer will be said. And Chef Vikas Khanna will step back into the kitchen, motivated not by the stars beside his name, but by the country he carries on his shoulders.