Penguin Random House India announces the acquisition of Michelin Star chef Vikas Khanna’s new book about grit, goals and building one of the world’s largest food drives, Feed India. Titled Kitchens of Gratitude, Vikas Khanna will write about his experiences in serving the greater good with the goodness of food during the COVID-19 lockdown. This book will be released in 2021 under the Ebury Press imprint.
Feed India, or barkat, as he calls it, was launched in March with a single tweet by the chef, and has grown to become one of the world’s largest food drives by an individual. In just 120 days, the initiative crossed 30 million meals in more than 135 cities across the country. Kitchens of Gratitude will capture the arduous journey he undertook, surpassing challenges of distance and time zones to bring food to people millions of miles away, helping those who were stranded and vulnerable during these trying times.
Commenting on the upcoming book, chef Vikas Khanna says, ‘Feed India is a symbol of solidarity. When we come together, there is no issue we can’t resolve. Providing more than 30 million meals from thousands of miles away is the proof. I am proud to share this journey in Kitchens of Gratitude.’
A deeply personal narrative, this book will be a testimony of one man’s determination, vision and connection to food and seva. In his own words, chef Vikas Khanna will recount his personal experiences in building Feed India, his efforts to supply rations and essentials, set up makeshift kitchens and ensure millions are fed daily. All this and more while living in the US, changing his sleep patterns to suit India time, working with a small team in India and making the campaign grow by leaps and bounds. This book will combine his food ethics with his experiences and talk about how and what he learnt about serving and making food, its impact on his life and its potential to affect the world at large.
Publisher, Indian Languages Publishing at Penguin Random House India, Vaishali Mathur, who has commissioned this book, says ‘Vikas has spoken several times of the deep impact of Indian traditional and values in terms of his relation to food. It will be the warmth of this attitude of seva that will come out wonderfully in this book’
