Chef Vishnu Manohar's is on a mission to break all culinary records

Chef Vishnu Manohar

His story is straight out of a Bollywood film - filled with struggle and marked by drama. He wanted to be an actor like Amitabh Bachchan, but life took a different course. A foodie at heart, restauranteur, chef and cookbook author Vishnu Manohar started cooking when he was 12. The first dish he made was a dhokla that turned into a dosa because he didn't know it had to be steamed. He has come far since then.

The initiation
Coming from a family of artists, Manohar was a commercial artist who started working at 14 to supplement his family's income. "I even volunteered to help the caterers while cooking," he remembers. One day, when the caterer insulted Manohar, saying some nasty things, it became the turning point of his life. "I took it up as a challenge to start a catering service that was bigger and better than his. I'm grateful to his harsh words because they gave me a purpose to succeed," says Manohar, who began by designing special recipes for weddings. He started conducting workshops which eventually led to cookery shows on TV. He has conducted more than 4,500 live cookery shows in India and abroad and authored 55 cookery books as well.

Last year, Chef Vishnu Manohar cooked non-stop for 53 hours

Breaking news
In 2000, when Manohar was conducting a paratha festival in the city, a friend suggested to make some sort of a record to garner public attention. He went on to make a world record by making a 5ft x 5ft paratha which weighed almost 35 kg. "My wife, Aparna ,suggested I must keep on making world record in food, just like a sportsperson does in sports. I searched the records and found that Benjamin Perry had done a non-stop cooking marathon for 42 hours. So in 2017, I broke his record by cooking non-stop for 53 hours," he says nonchalantly.

Preparing for a 53-hour food marathon isn't an easy feat. Apart from preparation, it requires determination, he states. "While I had shot for shows for non-stop 14 hours, I was informed that unless I do it at a stretch of 40 hours, I wouldn't be qualified for the record. So I started with running trials at the airport kitchen for 20 hours. However, I realised that it was fully air-conditioned. During a marathon, there would be no AC, so I switched to the railway kitchen." He admits that at one point, he felt exhausted to the bone and wanted to collapse but the motivation to make a record was stronger. "The 10-minute break that I took after every 10 hours was enough to rejuvenate me," he recalls. "I did the trials twice and got certified by the doctors."

What next?
Last year, Manohar made 1,200 kg of khichdi on International Food Day and recently on October 14, he made a world record by cooking 3,000 kg of khichdi in one big kadai. "Khichdi is the healthiest comfort food, and the first grub for newborns because it can be easily digested. It is also light on the spice and rich in proteins and vitamins," says Manohar. His next world record is to prepare Bharit, a Maharashtrian delicacy. "Jalgaon is known for its brinjal which tastes good due to the climatic conditions they are grown in. So on December 21, about a 100 men are going to cook 2,500 kg."

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