Vikas Khanna Isn’t Done Flying

When I tell the award-winning chef Vikas Khanna that I don’t like paneer, he immediately points out that the dish appears nowhere on his appetizer menu for Bungalow, his latest restaurant. Bungalow opens in the East Village in New York City on March 23, when his late sister would have turned 50. In one dish, Khanna turns the traditional northern Indian cheese into a cream cheese, adds labneh, wraps it in shredded filo dough (similar to a knafeh), and calls it a yogurt kebab. He serves it on a bed of what looks like pureed taro, a beautiful lavender purple. When your fork breaks the dough apart, there’s a delicious crunch. It tastes as divine as it sounds.

Khanna, 52, exudes youth and charm. He’s the happiest when feeding people, smiling as he tries to make you taste this dish or that. The multi-talented Indian immigrant isn’t just a chef, mind you. He’s also a filmmaker, photographer, historian, philanthropist, archivist, writer, videographer — you name it, Khanna has probably done it.

And for anyone who thinks that someone who was one of the first to earn a Michelin star for an Indian restaurant in the U.S. is done, please step aside. “As a chef, I always have to remember: I’m as good as my last dish,” he pointed out.