"CULINARY TOURISM IS HUGE!"

...Says Chef Vicky Ratnani on the new trend in cuisine. Hotelier India in a candid interview with the cooking maestro.

- LITA CHAKRABORTY

Gourmand, connoisseur and celebrity chef, Chef Vicky Ratnani is a huge name in the culinary world. From authoring a cookbook, being a chef on luxury ocean liners, hosting multiple winning food shows to even being the personal chef of Nelson Mandela and founding a gourmet burger brand, he is indeed one of India's biggest celebrity chefs. Some of his 'droolsome' food shows including 'Vickypedia', 'A Taste Down Under' (shot in Australia), 'Vicky Goes Desi', 'Vicky Goes Foreign', 'Gourmet Central', 'Vicky Goes Veg', 'Pressure Cooker', 'Sanjeev Kapoor ke Kitchen Khiladi', and 'Health Mange More' have generated the highest ratings in the food world on TV.

He has also penned a book on global vegetarian food with an Indian twist called 'Vicky Goes Veg' which won a Gourmand Award for 'Best Vegetarian Cookbook India' in 2016. With a culinary lineage so rich, it's no doubt that his restaurant in Mumbai - The Korner House by Chef Vicky is immensely popular and has even won the 'Best Restaurant - European Cuisine' at several prestigious food award shows.

Currently, the celebrated chef consults as a Culinary Director with GIPL (a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel) and conceptualises restaurant menus and food concepts for places such as Pizza Express, The Runway Project, The Market Project, The Poona Project, Ministry of Crab and Nihonbashi. He has most recently revamped The Bandra Project, which is a communal style, casual-yet-chic, all-day eatery serving global cuisine, and has also began a healthy food start-up called Hello Green, which has three back-end kitchens catering to South and North Mumbai.

If all this is not enough, Vicky has also been instrumental in conceptualising the cuisine for 'Insignia' by Inox Cinemas all over India. These are highend multiplex food kiosks, with state-of-the-art technology, serving global vegetarian food from live, open kitchens designed by Vicky himself.