Chef Vikas Khanna’s new New York restaurant, Bungalow, has just earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand Award, after mere 260 days of operation. The chef took to his social media to share this feat and penned a heartfelt note about it. Now, Chef Vikas Khanna is no stranger to Michelin stars. Not only is he a part of the elite club of Indian Michelin star chefs, he has 8 of them! But this one is different, not only emotionally for the chef, but on technical grounds too.
The New York restaurant Bungalow has earned the Michelin Bib Gourmand Award, which makes it a bit different than any other Michelin starred Indian restaurant. The general perception about Michelin starred restaurants is that they are high end, and fancy restaurants, and expensive too. And while this is mostly true, there are many establishments around the world that aren’t expensive but still offer an exceptional culinary experience. Identifying these institutions is exactly what is Michelin Bib Gourmand Award is for.
Michelin Bib Gourmand Award
This category of Michelin star restaurants has been around since 1955 when the culinary institutions serving exceptional food at reasonable prices would be flagged with a red ‘R’. The standard criteria for the Michelin Bib Gourmand Award was that these restaurants would serve a three-course meal with a starter, main course, and dessert at a reasonable price. This price differed according to the locations, which today stands at €36 in most European cities, US$40 in American cities, HK300 in Hong Kong and Y5,000 in Tokyo.
Bib here stands for Bibendum, the Michelin man. And from 1997, this started reflecting in the logo for the Michelin Bib Gourmand Awards as well. The logo that debuted in the Michelin guide for the first time that year, and had the image of the Michelin Man licking his lips.
All about the New York restaurant Bungalow
This is not Chef Vikas Khanna’s first restaurant, he has previously established Kinara and Ellora in Dubai in 2019 and 2020 respectively. But Bungalow is a different take altogether. In many interviews, the chef has talked about how special this restaurant has been for him, and the importance it holds in his journey of bringing the best and the most authentic of Indian cuisine to the world. This restaurant is in the East Village neighbourhood of NYC and hosted a plethora of big names like Priyanka Chopra, Kiran Rao and Aamir Khan’s Laapata Ladies team, Shahrukh Khan, Ayushman Khurana, among others.
This restaurant is not just professional; it is also quite important to Chef Vikas Khanna emotionally. The New York restaurant Bungalow was his promise to his late sister Radhika Khanna. An entrepreneur and fashion designer, Radhika passed away in 2022 after losing her health battle to lupus. As he talks about the restaurant, his devotion to bringing the warmth of Indian cuisine to more and more people becomes even more evident. Chef Khanna talks about how Indian cuisine needs more recognition for the nuances, the nostalgia, and how there is a need for more and more chefs to explore their roots, and experiment with the cuisine. Khanna leads by example at the Bungalow, and it is no wonder that the Michelin Bib Gourmand Award came knocking at their doorstep, less than a year after establishment.