International Museum Day 2023: India’s first Culinary Museum

In the year, 2021, Master Chef fame Vikas Khanna has inaugurated India’s First Culinary Museum. This Museum would stand as an testament to centuries of India’s diverse as well as creative culinary culture.

This museum would eventually feature more than 10,000 objects from every corner of our nation, India. Few of the pieces displayed in the Museum date back to the Harappan civilization others from Portuguese and Jewish settlers over the years. It displays a 100-year-old ladle used to pour food in temples as well as unique plates and vessels from Konkan, udipi and Chettinad regions.

The collection include handmade ice-cream churners, colourful chapatti, rolling pins and handcrafted wooden spice boxes . together they showcase a vast, little known history of the nation we inhabit.

Vikas Khanna stated that, he wants to preserve the nation’s rich culinary history in an humble way. There Is no other place in the world, believe, which has got such a diversity. And what better way to do it than with food. The history of India’s rich tradition of culinary arts should be preserved to educate the generations to come.

The Museum is spread across 25,000 square feet with the exterior shaped like a giant pot, inspired by the Khanna’s own love for bartans that overflow in his New York apartment.

The exterior of the Museum is shaped like a giant Harrapan pot.

Vikas Khanna is born and raised in Amritsar, he started cooking from a young age and he has gone to work in few of the most influential kitchens in India and in the world. He is presently the Judge on MasterChef India and runs his own fabulous restaurant, Junoon, in New York.

The above museum is dedicated to his father who has brought him very first tandoor, and is located at Khan alma mater, Manipal University.

The above museum is living one, people can donate their utensils and add to the collection their personal heirlooms and histories. After all, the history of cooking inida is deeply personal one that is comprised of eccentric family traditions and practices . Khanna plans to exhibit part of this museum in cities across the world. This would help us bring this pieces of art, culture, traditions and evolution to global attention.