Michelin-star chef now has sights on Everest

Celebrity chef and restau­rateur Vinit Bhatia is embarking on an unprec­edented journey. He wants to open a three-day ‘Pop up Restaurant’ at an Everest Base Camp that is above 17,000 feet-high, and for a good cause. The UK-based chef of Indian origin has been listed among the Top 1,000 Most Influential people in London by Evening Standard, while India Today lists him in the Top 100 Global Indians. The star chef, who owns and operates suc­cessful establishments around the world, is making the trip to the Everest Base Camp to raise funds for the Heart for India Foundation, for the earthquake victims of Nepal and in order to promote gastronomical tourism in Nepal.

Bhatia, and his team that also includes his son Varaul, and colleagues Irshad Qureshi and Tej Bahadur Thapa, are in town at the moment, studying street food and local cuisines of Kath­mandu and preparing for their journey to one of the highest points in the world. The team will leave for the Everest Base Camp on May 26 by flying to Lukla on the first leg of their journey. They will then trek to the Everest Base Camp, foraging for local ingredients to cook up the ‘restaurant’ on June 3, 4 and 5, at the same time document­ing the whole journey in a fea­ture-length film.

“The idea is to do something good and create awareness,” Bhatia says. “It’s really easy to fly to the Base Camp with all the ingredients and cook there. But we want to meet the people of Himalayas, witness their culture, learn their eating habits and incorporate that into our cooking.” He is, how­ever, aware of the challenges he might face in the low-oxy­gen environment—both for his cooking and his health—and believes his positive mental attitude will help him and his team tackle the hurdles.

The menu, Bhatia informs, will be a blend of Indian and Nepali dishes, which he believes overlap. Besides some vital ingredients that will be flown to the Base Camp, the team will forage for locally available resources to create a unique dining experience for the tourists at the Everest Base Camp. “Ad hoc, spontaneous and organic,” is what Bhatia and his team of chefs want the menu to be.

Asked why he chose Nepal and the Everest Base Camp as his route to charity, Bha­tia explains his closeness to Nepal and his awareness about the problems here after the 2015 earthquakes. “There are quite a few Nepalis who work with me and I’ve seen their problems firsthand,” Bhatia adds. “We have contributed before through our hotels and restaurants and this time we wanted to do something our­selves. The support for our cause from people all over the world has been overwhelming and I’m really glad Chef Tha­pa, who is a local Nepali, is accompanying us in the trip.”