Sanjeev Kapoor (born 10 April 1964) is an Indian chef, television presenter, author and entrepreneur, the most famous cook in the country. His programme Khana Khazana ran on television for about seventeen years and brought professional cooking into Indian homes. He has since built a business that includes restaurants, a food channel, cookware and more than a hundred and fifty books.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Sanjeev Kapoor |
| Born | 10 April 1964, Ambala, Haryana |
| Age | 62 |
| Education | Institute of Hotel Management, Catering and Nutrition, Pusa, New Delhi (1984) |
| Occupation | Chef, television presenter, author, entrepreneur |
| Known for | Khana Khazana; FoodFood channel; The Yellow Chilli restaurants; Wonderchef |
| Awards | Padma Shri (2017); National Award for Best Chef of India |
| Spouse | Alyona Kapoor (m. 1992) |
| Children | 2 |
Early Life
He was born at Ambala into a Punjabi family. His father worked for a bank and was transferred often, so that he grew up in several cities, including Meerut, Saharanpur and Delhi. His father enjoyed cooking at weekends, which was unusual for a man of his generation, and the boy watched him.
Education
He was a good student and was expected to become an architect or an engineer. Almost by chance he applied to the Institute of Hotel Management at Pusa in New Delhi, and graduated in 1984.
Career
Hotels
He began in the kitchens of the India Tourism Development Corporation’s hotels, worked in Varanasi and in New Zealand, and in 1992 became executive chef of the Centaur Hotel in Bombay, one of the youngest in the country to hold such a post. He won a national award as the best executive chef.
Khana Khazana
In 1993 the new satellite channel Zee TV asked him to present a cookery programme. Khana Khazana, shown every week, made him a household name across India and among Indians abroad. Viewers copied down his recipes for dishes from every region of the country and for Chinese and continental food adapted to Indian kitchens. The programme ran until 2012 and is counted among the longest-running cookery shows in Asia.
Business
He left hotels in 1997 to work for himself.
- **Restaurants:** The Yellow Chilli, Khazana, Sura Vie and other brands, with outlets in India, the Gulf and elsewhere
- **FoodFood:** a television channel devoted to food, which he launched in 2011
- **Wonderchef:** a company selling cookware and kitchen appliances, which he co-founded
- **Books:** more than 150 titles in several languages, among them Khazana of Indian Recipes and How to Cook Indian
- **Website and apps** carrying thousands of recipes
He has cooked for heads of state and was the chef for a dinner given for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Abu Dhabi.
Records and campaigns
In 2017 he led a team that cooked 918 kilograms of khichdi in a single vessel in New Delhi, recognised as a world record, to promote the dish as a national food. He has campaigned for healthier eating and for millets.
Honours
- Padma Shri (2017)
- National Award for Best Chef of India from the Government of India
Personal Life
He married Alyona in 1992; she works with him in the business. They have two daughters, Rachita and Kriti, and live in Mumbai. He has said that the most important ingredient in cooking is the wish to please the person who will eat the food.
Featured image: Sanjeev Kapoor at a restaurant launch in Mumbai, June 2012. Photo by Bollywood Hungama, licensed under CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
