Barack Obama: I am great at cooking Keema Curry!

Vikas Khanna is an Indian chef, restaurateur, food writer, filmmaker, humanitarian and the host of the TV Show MasterChef India.  He has been in the People’s list of “Sexiest Man Alive” as well as been called the Hottest Chef in the world!

In a dinner ceremony last year, he happened to cook for President Obama, who revealed one of his own culinary secret to him.

“He (Obama) called me and said, ‘Hey, you know what, I can also cook Indian food very well! In fact, I am great at cooking Keema curry. I learnt it from my Pakistani roommate at the Harvard. You and I, let’s have a cook-off at the White house’,” recollects chef Khanna, who was in Delhi recently. (link)

We know he keep Hindu God Hanuman’s talisman in his pocket for luck and he does seem to have a lot of interest in various other cultures as well.  It is this characteristic of his – of openly embracing other cultural symbols and values – that really endears him to many.  As well as make some people in the US loathe him.

In the coming years, and generations, one hopes that youth – American and others – can imbibe his characteristics of openness.