New Delhi, July 8 -- "There's no such thing as poor person's food or rich person's food, it is food," said chef Vijay Kumar while accepting the James Beard Foundation Award for the 'Best Chef in New York State' last month. Dressed in a veshti and chunky pearls around his neck, the 44-year-old's speech took over our Instagram feeds, as he unabashedly went on to share his journey "as a dark-skinned boy from Tamil Nadu" making it to the top, at the awards ceremony that recognises excellence in the culinary arts in the United States. Kumar steers the kitchen at the Michelin-starred restaurant Semma, in New York, where he serves nathai pirattal, a dish of spicy stir-fried snails that his grandmother cooked back home in the village.

Kumar was ...