‘I met Shah Rukh Khan when both of us were very low’: Celebrity chef Vikas Khanna reveals Bollywood superstar’s life changing advice

Michelin-starred Indian chef. Restaurateur. Author. And a filmmaker. Vikas Khanna surely dons many hats. In his illustrious career, the 54-year-old has appeared on several cooking shows, including MasterChef Australia and Hell’s Kitchen, penned more than 40 cookbooks and has expanded his culinary empire worldwide. But Vikas’ journey to stardom was marked by several challenges, with his catering venture, Lawrence Gardens, being ‘broken’ by the local government, and him landing in New York City with almost empty pockets to start his culinary venture from scratch.

Now, in an interview with Culinary Culture on YouTube, Vikas Khanna has bared his heart open on his life’s obstacles, financial constraints and rise to fame. Do you know that during a low phase in life, it was Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan who helped him pick up his pieces with a simple yet powerful piece of advice?

Shah Rukh Khan’s motivational statement to Vikas Khanna

Vikas Khanna, in a candid conversation with the host, revealed that he and his late sister Radhika, who passed away in 2022 after battling with lupus, bonded over Shah Rukh Khan movies during their childhood, often bunking their schools to watch the first day-first show of King Khan. The chef even admitted to having watched SRK and Kajol’s Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge more than 100 times.

Vikas Khanna shared that he once met Shah Rukh Khan during the pre-pandemic years when both of them were facing certain hardships and were in a low phase in life. That’s when the Bollywood Baadshah came with the ‘best advice’ that moved Vikas. SRK told him, with an unwavering conviction, ‘You know we will use this energy to fly again.’ The chef added that later on, Shah Rukh had a ‘big role to play in making’ of his popular New York restaurant Bungalow, specialising in a diverse range of Indian cuisines, which opened its doors in 2024.

More about Vikas Khanna

Speaking of Shah Rukh Khan, Vikas Khanna shared that he also worked with the superstar when the chef was doing a documentary on Holy Kitchens. ‘It was shown at Harvard that his (Shah Rukh Khan’s) understanding of hunger came from his family,’ disclosed the celebrity chef. SRK also encouraged Vikas to give a TED talk so that he could talk about how his life was not a cakewalk, but he overcame the challenges.


For the uninitiated, after Vikas Khanna arrived in New York in 2000, he used to sell food in the streets and engage in jobs like cooking, cleaning, and serving in people’s homes. Cut to a few years later, his flagship restaurant Junoon became one of the first Indian restaurants abroad to earn a Michelin star. Earlier this week, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani visited Bungalow for his Ifttaar meal, specially prepared by none other than Vikas himself. Notably, the chef had previously met Mamdani when he was just 8-years-old in 2001, when Mamdani walked into his restaurant Salaam Bombay in Tribeca with his mother, acclaimed filmmaker Mira Nair.