Vikas Khanna is being lauded for hitting back at the BBC news anchor who presumptuously assumed that the chef’s generosity in providing food to the poor and the needy in India stems from his sense of hunger while he was growing up in India.
Here’s a clip from the interview. Take a look.
Vikas Khanna, michelin star chef, gives it back to BBC news anchor.
— Harpreet (@CestMoiz) June 27, 2020
Anchor: In India, you were not from a rich family. So your sense of hunger must have come from there.
Vikas: NO, I am from Amritsar, everyone gets fed there in the langars. My sense of hunger came from New York! pic.twitter.com/u06BJDSzvj
While asking a question, the BBC’s news anchor said that since you are not from a rich family in India, your sense of hunger must have come from there. The anchor can be heard saying:
You have been famous now. You have cooked for Obamas, you have been on Gordon Ramsay’s show. But, you were not always like this. You are not from a rich family so I dare say you understand how precarious it can be in India.
He says that he was born and raised in Amritsar, a city where meals are cooked in community kitchens and people are served langars. He also goes onto to say, from where he belongs, food is cooked in abundance and is sufficient to feed the entire city.
He further states that his sense of hunger came from New York where he didn’t have a roof over his head or food to eat, during his initial days of struggle. He says:
My sense of hunger came from New York, when I was struggling and really at the bottom. I was living in Grand Central and sleeping around. It was difficult for a brown kid to rise through, someone who had a dream of winning the Michelin star.
Netizens lauded Vikas Khanna for hitting back at the BBC news anchor.
They’re still in a colonial hangover!
— Aditi Patwardhan 🇮🇳 (@AditiIndiaFirst) June 27, 2020
Aye @BBCWorld r u still on colonial hungover???
— SanathanDharmi17 (@Santhani17787) June 27, 2020
Keh ke le li!
— Gagan Sodhi (@gssr92) June 27, 2020
He just demonstrated the recipie for "CHUTNEY"!!!🤣
— Vinayak Bhave (@bhave_vinayak) June 27, 2020
I love this. What a response masterji! @TheVikasKhanna
— #%$@! (@KV1815) June 27, 2020
Class from Vikas 👏👏👏
— Proud Indian🇮🇳 (@badyalarpan) June 27, 2020
Shame on you @BBCWorld
Woah ! 🙌 Now that’s what you call a come back
— Pakhhi Bannerjee (@BannerjeePakhhi) June 27, 2020
Absolutely Superb…This one made my day..👌🏻👌🏻🇮🇳🇮🇳
— enn gee ess (@nee_el) June 27, 2020
Bravo, Vikas!! I can hear the echo to that tight slap you gave to the racist BBC.
— The_Seeker (@Saga08120953) June 27, 2020
What an epic kick-ass response
— Meliorism (@Meliorism17) June 27, 2020
It was a classic reply
— indiaisraelUK (@indiaisrael_uk) June 27, 2020
Ever since the lockdown came into effect, Vikas Khanna and his team have been working relentlessly to provide meals to millions of underprivileged people across cities in India.