Vikas with his plate of sandesh at Nakur in Hedua

Hedua thana theke bolchhe rastar bhir komatey.” The urgent message came not to any traffic sergeant but to confectioners Girish Chandra Dey & Nakur Chandra Nandy. It was neither Vijaya Dashami nor Bhai Phonta that had drawn the hordes to the shop. Shooting was on but with an unpretentious hand-held camera and without any actor in sight.

However, in the crowd of the curious, girls from the nearby AIWC hostel had spotted a familiar face that got them squealing the news over cell phones to fellow-boarders. And in no time, their brood multiplied. The local boudis took longer, possibly to change into a crisp Tangail, but when they did descend, they matched the teens in enthusiasm. The crew meanwhile was fighting the failing light to capture an introduction to the episode that had earlier been canned inside the shop. The moment they wrapped up, Vikas Khanna was surrounded.

Fighting excruciating back pain, he had gone through the motions for his signature show Twist of Taste for Fox Traveller, the next season of which is set to beam from October. “They told me I was in no shape to travel but I refused to do a season on sweets without Calcutta in it. No sandesh, no rosogolla. What would viewers think?” he would reveal later. Despite the physical discomfort, every time he heard a voice calling his name, he stopped to pose for one more selfie or shake another hand. Pranab Nandy, the proprietor, was already bowled over by the celebrity chef’s humility. “The first thing he did on getting off the car was touch my feet.” Why did he bother to oblige every fan? “Such days don’t last long. Sadak se bachcha utha hoon main. I want to enjoy this love while I can,” says Khanna.

Young girls crowd around him for autographs. Pictures: B. Halder

In no time, he was the young Vikas who had started a back-of-the-house catering outlet called Lawrence Gardens in Amritsar. “We had a moped which mamma used to drive, with me at the back. We used to go far to get vegetables at cheaper rates. Once the parties started getting bigger I spent all my savings in buying 108 plates and was serving my first banquet.” The party went on till 4am and till sun-up, the boy scrubbed the plates clean before going to bed. When his father found that out, he had guffawed: “Arey, those plates are stainless!” But 23 years on, Khanna remains as careful at Junoon, his Michelin-starred Manhattan restaurant. “I always tell my staff, dishwasher mein pade huye plates kharaab na ho jaye. I have worked hard to reach here.”

Ladle to pen

Khanna’s next book will be his magnum opus. “It will be the largest encyclopedia of India’s festival food, priced around Rs 8 lakh per copy. A single volume with special binding but not easy for one person to lift. I have titled it Utsav: A culinary epic of Indian festivals.” He plans to release it at the White House, being no stranger to the Obamas, having already hosted them at a charity dinner.

The book is dedicated to the transgenders of India. “What is the first sound you hear when something happy happens at home? Hijras’ clapping,” he smiles.

He talks of a festival of eunuchs that takes place in Koovagam, Tamil Nadu. “All the hijras come to the festival and get married to lord Aravan. Before Aravan died in the battle of Kurukshetra, he had prayed that he get married before his death. So Krishna granted him the boon and became Mohini for a night to marry him. I have visited the festival thrice. They serve unique food.”

Rose Tea-smoked Chicken Tikka Masala, the dish Vikas Khanna made on MasterChef Australia

The book has taken him to far corners. A firm believer that the best Indian food is had at homes, he agreed to be driven to a village 80km from Guwahati in search of Bihu food. “It was pitch dark, the road was bad, I was with strangers. Finally, when they opened the car door, the smell hit me — jasmine had bloomed. And when we went to see the cooking on the terrace, as I looked down, a million fireflies were hovering over the rice field. I started crying like a child.”

Accounts of each festival, he says, will start with such memories. The book, which has been in the works for 12 years, will be out in 2015. He admits that having a big team and resources on hire like helicopters help him keep one foot in either continent. “This time I have to be in Kashmir on October 29 because saffron will blossom then. So I will fly back to India for two days. Such dates are marked on my calendar — like the pollination of kaali mirch in Kerala in August.”

Sandesh gets a twist

Twist of Taste, he points out, is a difficult show as so much research goes into it. “That is how we are able to highlight food that few have heard of.” He points to one such discovery he would showcase in the coming season — Beef Ka Halwa. “When I heard of it main toh hairan ho gaya. In Amritsar, we have a chicken halwa. That is still understandable. But with beef!” He traced the dish to Anarkali Bazar in Lahore. “They boil the beef and rinse it repeatedly and finally boil it in edible ittar and cook it in khoya. Phir warq lagake, they sell it as a sweet. There is no smell!”

The shoot is also time-consuming. “One day you see me studying sandesh here, another day will go in filming the twist I’ll give to sandesh in my kitchen.” It will be “Sandesh Ki Ice cream, on the lines of Baked Alaska”. “I will make plain white sandesh, battering it well to let air in. In a round bowl, I will layer one side with strawberry ice cream, and for the other side, I will make a jelly-like papaya compote with gelatin. Then I will freeze the bowl. Since there will be so much air in the sandesh, it will not harden. I will make French meringue, by beating egg white and pouring sugar syrup on it. It will set like rock. Then I will upturn the bowl, place a plastic wrapper and on it and I will pipe the whole meringue in cones. Then I will bake the ice cream! Because of the insulation, the ice cream will not melt. When you cut it, it will be an ice cream cake,” he beams.

He has faced flak from people who are offended by the twists he gave to a dish. “But a classic remains a classic. Why can’t I experiment with it? If I do not, then what good is the position I have achieved? If I serve only Paneer Makhni, will you do this interview? People have been eating and writing on these dishes for ages. I can serve fish with kasundi in my restaurant and I know Americans will go crazy. But our food will not evolve. That is why I steer clear of traditional Punjabi food at Junoon. We must give other dishes a chance.”

A show on sweets is taking its toll on his lean physique. The kitchen king is losing the calorie war. “I skip meals now and then. What else can I do? I had thought of running for an hour daily but I can barely move with this back. Aj uncle ne hi mujhe aat sandesh khilaya.” The sandesh shoot was right after a session at Chittaranjan. One refrains from asking how many rosogollas he had there.

MasterChef calling

He is bringing out a compilation of the best recipes of the three seasons of MasterChef India in end-October. As for MasterChef Australia fans, he will soon be seen on the show (Episode 35 of Season 6). “It was a pressure test. I used Lucknow ka dhungar, an old Indian technique of smoking (whereby spices are sprinkled over a piece of burning charcoal and then ghee is poured over it and the resulting smoke is locked with a ready dish to infuse charcoal aroma and flavour in it) while using new techniques. I made Rose Tea-smoked Chicken Tikka Masala, my version with a twist. I also made lemon rice and a huge rice crepe. It was a marvel to look at. They found it hard to believe it was made of rice. It breaks so easily that it is tough to get it right at one go. I made the dish in 45 minutes. They were given an hour and a half.”

Khanna takes great satisfaction in the surging interest the kitchen has come to command. “Today people declare loudly: ‘I want to become a chef’. Look at me. Who knew I would get a voice in the world!” he breaks into that boyish grin his 107,000 Twitter followers swoon over.