A Fledgeling Cook's Biography

Hello and Namaste to everyone, my name is Karan Veer Khanna and I was born and brought up in the city of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh in India. I'm 23 years of age and currently pursuing a culinary management( Integrated learning) diploma from the George Brown College in Canada. I have also completed a Hotel management graduate degree from IHM Mumbai in 2019.

This is a recent photo of myself interning at the bakery of Renaissance Lucknow Hotel. I think the smile on my face depicts the joy I feel whenever I get the chance to cook and learn in a kitchen.

My culinary philosophy as of right now as a student of this discipline is to just learn my trade, hone my skills as a cook, and just keep my head down and the rest will follow. I also believe in networking outside my discipline as I think it helps me grow socially and emotionally as an aspiring chef.

As a young boy, I dreamt of being a surgeon. I always wanted to be a doctor because a doctor helps people and makes them feel better. I liked eating and watching cooking but as I progressed in life I understood the medicinal and nutritional value and ingredient possess. I understood if we eat a balanced nutritional diet, we would never require the help of a doctor, and slowly I started learning more about cooking as a profession and all it entails. Coming from a developing nation, I have seen so much illness, suffering, and ailments growing up because of improper nutrition. Eventually, I felt the need to learn more about food, the need to remove food wastage, what we eat and it is chemical composition, and how it reacted with our bodies after ingesting it. So, I wanted to devise an affordable and nutritious meal plan accommodating religious and dietary needs and provide it to those in need in the form of a food bank and this is one of the few reasons I wanted to become a chef. In my point of view, to know the best for people's food needs, I think I have to learn how to be the best and by becoming a 'chef', I know I will certainly achieve my mission to fight hunger and illnesses, it brings with itself.

I have a brief experience of 4 months in 2017 working in the hotel and restaurant industry. I have interned in a bakery that made products for two hotels as that chain of the hotel was owned by a single-family in town and they wanted to minimize cost. Even though the workload was enormous for me as a beginner in this industry yet I looked at this as an opportunity and took on more responsibility. I also learned the finer details of running a bakery of a 5-star hotel i.e. how to place and receive orders, duty handovers, the importance of a determined work plan, and a production list. I have briefly worked in outdoor catering jobs as a server and a cook and also in a cuisine-oriented restaurant in my hometown, Lucknow. The restaurant served Awadhi and Mughlai cuisine and it was its unique selling point. I also had the opportunity to learn about the cooking techniques involved in the making of the famous dishes from Lucknow straight from the source, just before the lockdown imposed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Some of the famous dishes I learned are: 'Basket Chaat' or 'A basket made out of grated and fried potato filled with a variety of ingredients from the local famed shop that goes by their surname "Shukla Chaat" located in heart of the city', 'Galawati kebabs from the famous eatery that goes by the name of Tunday Kebabi', 'Kulcha Nihari and pasanda kebab from the reputed eatery- Rahim's' and many more.

My culinary philosophy is that food forms an integral part of our life. Food is present everywhere in the world in form of different ingredients. We should respect what we receive, and as a Chef, it is all the more important for me to learn about food literacy and do the level best to do justice to the ingredients when I cook.

This is my first time trying my hand at writing a blog. I hope that I learn how to communicate my thoughts more precisely to the people reading my blog and gain the confidence to say what I believe in as a cook.

A culinary quote that I like:

"One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating."

- Luciano Pavarotti.

This is me with a local expert, who makes a delicacy called: 'Makhan Malai' which is saffron and cardamom flavored whipped cream and made using ancient techniques like using dew to cool boiled down milk. It is only made during the winter season and the process is very labor-intensive.

I would also like to mention a Culinary blog that I have come across upon my research on how to write a blog. The name of the blog: "Not Without Salt". The thing I found most interesting is that many of the food bloggers are writing about the intricate details of the world of kitchen and food, but here the author 'Ashley' who is a wife and mother of three children was formerly was on her path to become a top pastry chef at a very reputed restaurant called 'Spago' in Beverly Hills. She writes about the contentment and simple joy she gets from cooking fresh and seasonal produce for her family and for her blog. She has also won awards and features for her blog.