Vikas Khanna Is The First Indian Chef On Time's 100 Most Influential People List, Here's Why

There are chefs who cook beautiful food. There are chefs who build empires, and then there are chefs who change the way people think about food entirely. Vikas Khanna belongs in that last category. In Time 100 Most Influential People of 2026, he stands as one of only two Indians featured (the other being actor Ranbir Kapoor). His profile for the list was written by legendary French chef Eric Ripert, which feels appropriate. When one chef writes about another in that rarefied culinary language of respect, you know the story is about more than food. Influence, after all, is about how many lives you touch when the kitchen lights go off.

Here are five reasons Vikas Khanna’s influence runs far deeper than the restaurant industry.

1. He Took Indian Food From Nostalgia To Global Power

For decades, Indian cuisine abroad often lived in a strange culinary purgatory. It was loved, certainly. But it was also misunderstood; flattened into clichés of curry and spice. Khanna helped change that narrative. Through restaurants, cookbooks, television, and relentless storytelling, he presented Indian cuisine as something it truly is: one of the world’s most sophisticated culinary traditions.

At places like Junoon, he framed it like fine art. Regional traditions, ancient spice techniques, forgotten ingredients. Suddenly diners were studying it. When his New York restaurant Bungalow NYC was awarded the prestigious Michelin 2024 Bib Gourmand Award in December 2024, he dedicated the award to his late sister, Radhika, and his homeland.

2. He Made Food A Tool for Compassion

Late author Anthony Bourdain once said the best thing about food is that it brings people together. Khanna took that idea and turned it into a full-blown humanitarian mission. During the chaos of the pandemic, when millions of migrant workers across India were stranded and hungry, Khanna launched Feed India, a massive food relief effort that distributed millions of meals.

It’s easy to forget that chefs (beneath the television fame and Instagram plating) are fundamentally providers. Their job is to feed people. Khanna simply took that responsibility more seriously than most.

3. He Turned His Story Into A Global Inspiration

Khanna’s story begins far from Michelin dining rooms. He grew up in Amritsar, a city where food isn’t just nourishment but devotion. The kitchens of the Golden Temple (serving tens of thousands of free meals daily) left a permanent mark on his philosophy. That idea of food as service stayed with him long after he moved to New York City, where building a career wasn’t exactly easy.

Every chef who’s ever started from the bottom knows the drill: cramped kitchens, long nights, impossible expectations. Khanna survived it all, and then used his story to inspire young cooks around the world who didn’t grow up with Michelin connections or culinary school pedigrees.

4. He Became One of the Most Visible Cultural Ambassadors for India

Some chefs represent restaurants. Others represent entire cultures. Through television shows like MasterChef India, global food festivals, and international collaborations, Khanna became one of the most recognizable ambassadors of Indian culinary culture. He talks about food the way historians talk about civilizations:

A spice blend becomes a migration story.

A dessert becomes a memory of childhood.

A recipe becomes an archive.

Suddenly people who might never visit India feel like they’ve experienced a small piece of it. That’s cultural influence at its most powerful.

5. He Proved That Kindness Can Still Win

The restaurant world has a reputation for aggression. Screaming chefs, flying pans, kitchens run like military barracks. Khanna always felt slightly different from that stereotype. He’s known for being generous with young chefs, patient with students, and respectful of culinary traditions that came before him. Which might explain why Eric Ripert, a chef famous for his calm and philosophy-driven kitchens, wrote his Time 100 tribute.

Being named to Time’s 100 Most Influential People is a big deal. The kind of recognition that shows up in headlines and social media timelines. But Khanna’s influence has always been harder to measure. It’s in the young chef who believes Indian cuisine belongs on the world stage. It’s in the hungry migrant that received a meal when he needed it most.

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