Taking up challenges, setting trends, breaking records

In the city, Vishnu Manohar is synonymous with food and records. The maverick chef, who has acquired celebrity status over the past three decades, has kept the crowds salivating for earthy food and world records and has delivered both.
He began his foray in food world as an outdoor caterer and soon launched a chain of restaurants across the state. “With the business on track, I had this itch to do something different. My son Adinath, who is very fond of sports, would often ask me if I can form any record. I looked around to see if any chef had done so and came across the name of Benjamin Perry, who had a world record for cooking for 40 hours non-stop making 450 dishes,” he says.

Typically, Manohar decided to take the challenge head on. “I worked to establish three records, the first of longest cooking hours, next was of number of dishes prepared and third being highest footfall at such an event,” says Manohar, who attempted and succeeded in April this year by cooking for 52 hours. He prepared 1,000 dishes and had more than 50,000 people visit the venue.

But his vision goes beyond personal records. “I have this intense desire to put Indian dishes on the world map. During my travels in Asia and western countries, I have heard people gushing about dishes like Muttabbal or Baba Ganoush. This has made me wonder why Indian food, which is far tastier, still not recognized globally,” the chef says.

“At a culinary school in the US where I giving a lecture about varieties of Indian breads and combinations, I discovered that they had not even heard about them,” he says.

Taking this desire to popularize Indian food globally, Manohar has since taken initiatives like preparing baigan bharta and khichdi in huge quantities to form records.

“I prepared 3,000 kg khichdi in October this year to draw attention to this versatile soul food which is nutritious, inexpensive and filling,” says Manohar who will be attempting to prepare 2,500 kg of baighan bharta on December 21 at Jalgaon. “The Jalgaon variety of brinjal is very suitable for bharta,” he says.

His efforts to popularize different varieties of Indian food can also be seen through the many food festivals that he has curated.

“India is a land of festivals and each festival has a particular dish, which is prepared during this time like modak during Ganesh Utsav. Besides, the changing seasons bring a variety of seasonal vegetables and accompaniments which I use for designing food festivals,” he says.

But Manohar is now backwardly integrating his endeavors. “I am in the process of setting up a school in Pune where children from class I to XI will be taught to grow and prepare food and hope to set one such school in Nagpur too, God willing,” he adds.