Michelin-star chef Vikas Khanna mixed English and Punjabi to unfortunate effect

Michelin star chef Vikas Khanna moved to the US in 2000

Amritsar-born, New York-based chef Vikas Khanna is a proud Punjabi who often slips into his mother tongue while speaking in English – sometimes to unintentionally hilarious results. Khanna was 29 when he moved from India to the States, where he worked odd jobs and long hours to make a living while studying at the The Culinary Institute of America.

Today, he has spent more than two decades in the US, received Michelin stars to his name, trained with top chefs like Gordon Ramsay, and hosted celebrities and world leaders at his high-profile restaurants. Through it all, Vikas Khanna has reiterated again and again how in-touch he is with his roots and his country – so much so that he still speaks in both Punjabi and English.

In fact, this tendency to mix languages sometimes has hilarious consequences, like when the celebrity chef unwittingly used the Punjabi term for “what else” while talking to an American friend. For the uninitiated, “what else” in Punjabi is “hor” - which is phonetically similar to the English word for a prostitute. It’s a word not readily used in polite conversation for its negative connotations, but Khanna’s friend saw the humour in the situation when he slipped into Punjabi.

“As everyone knows that I speak in Punglish (English & Punjabi) and I interchange them all the time,” Vikas Khanna wrote on Twitter. “This morning I’m speaking to an American friend & as usual I said ‘what else’ in Punjabi which is (HOR). It came at the wrong time & ironically perfect time,” he elaborated.

As everyone knows that I speak in Punglish (English & Punjabi) and I interchange them all the time.

This morning I’m speaking to an American friend & as usual I said “what else” in Punjabi which is (HOR)

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It came at the wrong time & ironically perfect time.
We laughed like… pic.twitter.com/TSkg3mDyId

— Vikas Khanna (@TheVikasKhanna) July 25, 2023

Speaking at the Moneycontrol Mutual Fund Summit in December last year, Khanna said that he moved to the States in 2000 and has been living there ever since. “I do form a bridge between India and American culture, being one of the few people in this world who has hosted four American presidents and almost every relevant world leader except for Putin,” he said.