From an abusive marriage to a renowned chef, how Shipra Khanna cooked her way to the top

Masterchef India Season 2 winner Shipra Khanna's journey is not a bed of roses. While she started cooking at an early age of nine, she was married off when she was 19. She went through a rough patch when her husband abused her but then Masterchef happened and she started climbing the ladder of success. All pictures: Shipra Khanna's Instagram

Updated On: 2019-12-22 08:00 AM IST

Shipra Khanna

The winner of Masterchef Season 2, Shipra Khanna is recognised as one of the top Indian celebrities as well as globally. She started cooking at the age of nine.

Khanna was born on November 17, 1981.She is also the author of a book named 'The Spice Route: 1'. Shipra went to St. Bede's College in Shimla and studied economics and psychology.

Chef Shipra Khanna specialises in global cuisine, Indian, baking, desserts and fusion food. Her popular show 'Pure Sin' is the first and the only dessert show in India. She has done numerous shows around the world.

She has been working extensively in India and across the globe. After winning Master Chef, she began to host her own cooking show "Kitchen Stars ka Safar" on a leading entertainment channel.

She has been awarded "Women Chef taking taste beyond borders" by SAARC and SCWEC in Nepal and was representing India. She has been felicitated by the CM of Himachal Pradesh Mr Dhummal and Rotary International. She has also been awarded "Himachali of the Year". She has inaugurated the Tandoor at Le Cordon Bleu, Paris and was honoured!

As far as her personal life is concerned, Khanna was married at a very young age and spent years with a husband who was both physically and psychologically abusive. She has two children, Yadavi Khattar and Himannk Khattar

She decided she had had enough when her husband abused her father in the midst of an argument. However, a long custody battle took place. It was in the midst of all the emotional chaos when her mother sent an application to Masterchef India on her behalf.

Shipra Khanna's TED talk, Feed your girl child, offers an account of the many setbacks she experienced on her road to success, of the cancellations and discrimination she faced because people refused to take a female chef seriously.

She requests parents to teach their daughters the importance of self-respect from the very beginning, and to make sure they know they aren't inferior to their male relatives.

On being asked why didn't she try for Bollywood, she replied that it was because Bollywood is not about food and cooking.

Her Instagram account shows that she's as good with fashion as she is with cooking food. She is also often seen travelling abroad.

The dishes that Khanna made at Masterchef were one of their kind, completely out of the box. She made a mousse dessert from yams; a tandoori chicken-flavoured pâté; carrot cake with garam masala, which is an Indian mix of five spices used only in savoury dishes.

On her Instagram page, Khanna is seen with the bigwigs of the Bollywood industry such as Alia Bhatt, Ranveer Singh, Varun Dhawan, Sonakshi Sinha, Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit and more. She hosted them for her show 'Startruck' where stars shared their foodie moments with her.

Khanna says, "Don't Mess with the Best and that’s always a Chef."

"A Dash or Gold before the Valentine Red Sets in," Shipra wrote as she posed with the Golden Masterchef coat on.

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