The global fine-dining landscape is undergoing a flavorful revolution, and Indian-origin chefs are leading the charge. Here are five chefs who have shattered the glass ceiling by earning Michelin Star awards, the highest culinary honour the world has to offer.
Garima Arora
She is the first Indian female chef to win the highly coveted Michelin Star in 2018. Born in Mumbai, she won the award for her restaurant Gaa, which she established in 2017 in Bangkok’s Phatumwan.
In addition to a Michelin Star, she was awarded Asia’s best female Chef in 2019. She also won the 2022 MICHELIN Guide Young Chef Award. In 2023, she received a second Michelin star for her restaurant.
She is an alumna of the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu Paris. After graduating, she worked at Noma with René Redzepi. She also trained under world-renowned chef Gordon Ramsay and worked as a sous chef at Gaggan Anand’s Bangkok establishment, Gaggan.
She appeared as a judge on MasterChef India. Talking about her role as a judge, during an interview with Le Cordon Bleu Paris, she said, "I believe it is important to be fair but at the same time, you must understand that the contestants are home cooks, not professional chefs. The most important thing is not to push them too hard and judge fairly with positive and constructive feedback to help guide them."
While sharing her thoughts on winning two Michelin Star, she explained, “It is nice to be recognized. More than anything, it is a good validation for the team for their hard work."
She is married to Rahul Verma and the couple has two children.
Vikas Khanna
The Amritsar-born Michelin-starred chef Vikas Khanna is known not just for his incredible cooking skills but also for his humility. Over twenty years ago, he left his hometown in Punjab and relocated to the US.
The journey of the restaurateur, author, filmmaker, and MasterChef India judge was not easy. As a child, he had leg braces and later wore wooden shoes, which made him a target for bullying. Once in a TED Talk, he shared, “I was teased in school. Boys would call me ‘polio wala ladka’ (the boy with polio), and said that I was cursed due to my braces.” Unfettered by the hurdles and with the support of his family, his mother and grandmother, who taught him to cook, he created his own path to become a world-renowned chef.
He received his first Michelin Star for his restaurant Junoon in Manhattan, New York. He was given the award the same year he started his restaurant, after years of other failed endeavours. He didn’t stop there, as the chef went on to win seven more Michelin Star awards. He is also one of the few chefs who cooked for the Obamas while they were at the White House.
Though he opened several restaurants across the world, his latest, which opened in 2024, is Bungalow. He started the establishment on his late sister’s 50th birthday.
Chetan Shetty
An alum of IHM Gurdaspur (2008), Chetan Shetty won the prestigious award in 2023. After working as a junior sous chef in Chennai, he worked at Chef Manish Mehrotra’s Indian Accent for over eight years. He also served as the executive chef at the fine-dining restaurant Raina in Washington, D.C. He now helms New York-based Indian restaurant Passerine.
During an interview with The Hindu, he once said, "From my point of view, everything starts changing with time,” while talking about the constant evolution of food.
“When people say that this is not authentic Indian food, I want to ask them what authentic Indian food is,” he added. His love for cooking started at a very early age. His father ran a kitchen in Pune.
Sujan Sarkar
An entrepreneur and chef, he has cooked in renowned kitchens from London to Dubai. He received his Michelin Star in 2023. He is behind the famous restaurants Baar Baar in LA, Indienne in Chicago, and the Indian chai/pastry shop Swadesi in Chicago. He is a two-time James Beard Award nominee.
His restaurant Indienne, which received a Michelin Star just a year after opening, was also named one of Esquire Magazine's "Best New Restaurants in America" in 2022. It was named Bon Appetit’s “Best New Restaurants in America” in 2023 and Robb Report’s “Best of the Best: 10 Best New Restaurants in America” in 2023. The same year, it emerged as Yelp’s “25 Best New Restaurants”.
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Sujan Sarkar grew up in Kolkata, West Bengal, and completed his studies in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha. He began his culinary journey at JW Marriott in Mumbai.
Vineet Bhatia
Born and raised in Mumbai, he became the first chef of Indian-origin to win the prestigious culinary award. He earned it for his UK restaurant Zaika. Though he spent his early life in India, he relocated to the UK, where he experimented with various culinary styles and, most importantly, Indian food.
He graduated high school from St. Xavier's School, Mumbai and then earned his diploma in hotel management and catering technology at IHM, Dadar, Mumbai. Later, he studied at the Oberoi School of Hotel Management in Delhi, India.
After winning his first Michelin Star in 2001, he went on to bag a second one for his restaurant Rasoi in 2009. The establishment is at the Mandarin Oriental in Geneva, Switzerland.
He is a former MasterChef India judge and also appears as a judge in the Netflix show The Final Table. In 2021, he was appointed as the Culinary Ambassador for the GREAT Britain & Northern Ireland Campaign. In 2023, he received the MBE (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) from King Charles.