Chef Vikas Khanna to unveil world's costliest cookbook at Cannes

Celebrity chef Vikas Khanna is headed for Cannes where he will be unveiling Utsav, an Indian festival compendium and the world's costliest cookbook at Rs 2 lakh. We're not surprised, since the tome weighs a bicep-busting 16 kg.

The book will be put on auction at Sotheby's, with the funds going to charity. Khanna, who cunts the Godrejs and the Rahejas among his corporate clients, has included recipes that are celebrity favourites.

"I cooked for Madonna at a premium luxury evening, where she was the special guest," he says, "We laid out Indian tapas appetisers. I had deconstructed Indian dishes like Panch phoran spice mix with Daal jelly cubes, coconut foam and kasundi chips, and petite nanini bites stuffed with walnut and keema reduction. She was bowled over. As a giveaway, many guests were given spice mixes made specially by me."

Another Khanna fan is Mission Impossible star Tom Cruise. "He came to Junoon (Manhattan restaurant) for a meal," remembers Khanna, "His favourite is Vikas's Vegetarian Ultra Creative Tree of Life. It's my version of Gobi ka pakoda with lasun ki chutney."