Beyond Michelin stars: Finding why money and awards no longer matter for Chef Vikas Khanna
At 4:30 PM every day, before The Bungalow opens its doors to the guests, Chef Vikas Khanna takes a brief, intentional pause amid the chaotic
At 4:30 PM every day, before The Bungalow opens its doors to the guests, Chef Vikas Khanna takes a brief, intentional pause amid the chaotic, high-stakes prep in the kitchen for a quiet moment of prayer. For Chef Khanna, this daily ritual is the anchor of his existence in one of the world's most brutal restaurant markets, New York. Having earned laurels in the culinary world and beyond - from garnering Michelin stars, writing acclaimed books, directing films, leading one of the largest food relief drives in history, to now being featured on TIME's 2026 TIME100 - he has reached a rare pinnacle. Yet, rather than chasing endless expansion, he is asking a different question: What gets you out of bed when you've already achieved everything? The 4:30 ritual of gratitude In the tough hospitality industry, which - as Khanna says - demands presence "every single night, in sickness and in health, for 16 hours a day", his energy no longer comes from the pursuit of accolades. “Every day I open the door at 4:30 to pray. I feel God has given me one more day to serve my country and my people,” Khanna told LiveMint in a recent interview. “I take it very differently because after a certain point, money is not your motivation.
Awards or recognition are not your motivation. You have to find a new motivation to wake up every day and fight for something.” Rejecting the billion-dollar empire The modern culinary success is often measured by scale. The standard trajectory for a celebrity chef involves aggressively expanding their footprint—launching global chains, franchising concepts, and building massive hospitality groups. Khanna is intentionally walking away from that blueprint. “Everybody wants to have 6 billion restaurants, a $2 billion empire. I don't have to fight for that. God gave me everything,” he said with candour. Chef Khanna said that his goal is to manage his one restaurant so perfectly that 1.5 billion people can look at it and feel truly represented. For him, creating something with "sustainable in beauty" means honouring its unique origins rather than endlessly replicating it for profit. "Its beauty lies in the fact that it was born completely differently from the rest of the world," he said. Surviving the culinary Olympics New York is unforgiving; wealthy and hyper-competitive, it is a place where a $10,000 dinner sits shoulder to shoulder with a $1 fast-food meal. Khanna said he views the city as the ultimate proving ground, a city devoid of proxies where the world's greatest chefs are expected to be on the floor every night.
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