Cooking can be child’s play

Vikas Khanna on his first illustrated book for kids

November 28, 2014 08:28 pm | Updated November 29, 2014 02:38 pm IST

Cook Vikas Khanna

Cook Vikas Khanna

When Chef Vikas Khanna returned with a nomination for his book,  Return to the Rivers,  from the James Beard Foundation Awards earlier this year, he was most excited to share the joy with his niece. "I remember walking into the house; she was playing with a friend. I went up to her, proudly gave her my book and said that it is for her. She flipped through it and tossed it aside, saying she could not understand anything in it. I know she loved hearing stories about me as a child so I promised her that I would write a book that she, and other children her age, could relate to,” he says.

That is what brought about the story of Jugnu, the protagonist in Vikas’ latest book,  The Magic Rolling Pin.  It’s an illustrated story about a small boy who only feels at home in the kitchen. With his magic golden  belan  (rolling pin) Jugnu creates perfectly round  rotis , making him very popular. However, when he loses the  belan , his grandmother tells him not to give up and he discovers that the magic was within him the whole time. The book is the first in a series of four books by Vikas that will introduce children to the joy of cooking through simple stories. Each story will feature a different character.

“It’s a very simple story but the response from the kids has been really good. Children are much more perceptive than we can imagine. They latch on to subtleties that we as adults might not even notice,” says Vikas, speaking on the phone from Mumbai in between a hectic shooting schedule for the latest season of Masterchef India. He adds that he wanted the protagonist to be someone who every child could relate, and also break some barriers: “Gender stereotyping is still rampant. Even today, in many households, if a boy expresses interest in cooking, he is asked, ‘ Kya, tum ladki ho?’  This needs to stop. Through Jugnu, I wanted to show that the kitchen is for both boys and girls. By giving him a socially awkward character, the story shows how cooking can help bring out the true character of a person.”

Vikas was also involved in the illustrating process, making sure Jugnu fit what he had in mind: “Writing about a character is like giving birth. It is your child. Of course I had to be involved.”

So how much of himself did Vikas put into Jugnu? Laughing heartily, he says, “People keep asking me ‘How much percentage of Jugnu is like you?’  Main kya kahoon ? I should probably say something like 16.4 per cent!”

The similarities are definitely there however: Vikas began cooking at his grandmother’s side at a very young age and began his own catering business at 17. Throughout our conversation, heavily peppered with Hindi , Vikas shows genuine admiration the inbuilt tenacity of children. “I have always loved kids, but Masterchef Junior was an eye-opener for me. They are so resilient and come with no preconceived notions. Unlike adults, they don’t let their ego get in the way. They fall and rise and learn so fast.” On Masterchef India going vegetarian, Vikas says, “We might have shocked people with the decision, but the fact is that vegetarians are a majority in the country. No one would have thought that there could be so much variety in vegetarian cooking. It’s going to be fantastic.”

With his next book,  World Feast,  set to release early next month, Vikas is a busy yet excited man: “It’s a major book for me. The focus is on cooking global foods at home with easily-available ingredients.”

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