Dubai-it: Why did Pradeep Khullar, a Michelin-recognised chef, start cooking Indian street food, chole bhature?

Dubai: Chef Pradeep Khullar was 15 when his father passed away from cancer. This was 1998. His parents had spent their savings on treatment, travelling across northern India in search of medical help. “We were doing very well, but unfortunately, I lost my dad when I was in grade 10 because of cancer.” To make ends meet, his mother found a job while also running a small tailoring boutique in Rohini, Delhi, where the family lived. She managed the orders, measurements, customers and deliveries herself. “She used to wake up at five, do the chores, send us to school, go to work at her day job. At six, she would go to the tailoring boutique, fill in the orders and the measurements, and then speak to the customers.” By 10pm, she would return home and cook. The family went to bed around midnight. “Those six, seven years were really hard on us,” he remembers. By Grade 12, he realised that many of his classmates had been preparing for engineering and medical entrance examinations with special tutoring. He had not, so the entrance exam results weren’t optimal. He secured admission to one university, but the seat required a payment of Rs400,000. “I didn't have that much money.” One Sunday morning, while playing cricket with friends, he mentioned his predicament. A friend happened to have an application form for a hotel management course, which he offered to Khullar. He had bought it for his sister, who no longer wanted it. Khullar completed the application, passed the interview and group discussion, and secured a place in Delhi. “It was not going to cost us a lot. It's just the tuition fee because I lived in the same city, and would use the local transport. It led me to do hotel management.” Chef Pradeep Khullar. Picture: Ashok Verma Today, 28 years after his father's passing, Khullar is a Michelin-recognised chef running Bhaturewala, a specialty restaurant he recently opened in Dubai, selling chole bhature (spiced chickpea curry served with deep-fried bread), the North Indian street-food favourite he once bought for his family on Sundays from a neighbourhood vendor in Delhi. The Dubai restaurant is his own venture, inspired by those childhood memories. The business has been funded from his savings and that of his partner Saubhagi Veer. Its small kitchen can produce only 200 plates. He cooks in batches of 50. There are hour-long queues in this quiet back alley of Oud Metha in Dubai but he refuses to sell food he considers even a fraction below par, even though customers are waiting. The boy in the queue Eating out was reserved for birthdays and anniversaries. On Sundays, the family would buy chole bhature from a neighbourhood vendor in Delhi. “Being the young boy of the family, it was always my turn and duty to stand in the queue, whether it's summer or winter. I was supposed to bring back five, six plates for all of them. So, Bhaturewala in Dubai is nostalgia on steroids for me.” In 2004, he found work as a kitchen management trainee with Old World Hospitality in Delhi. The work involved lifting enormous cooking vessels, preparing vast quantities of food and spending up to 18 hours on a shift. His cousins had changed careers when things did not work out. Khullar could not afford to. “They all had Plan B. Hence they did not stick to what they chose. I had no Plan B, and I kept marching ahead because there was no choice.” He worked on the opening of Indian Accent in Delhi and rose through the ranks at Old World Hospitality. His responsibilities expanded to quick-service restaurants, casual dining operations and a central kitchen supplying 13 larger kitchens. He subsequently joined Lite Bite Foods, handling Punjab Grill as Brand Chef across India. By 2015, he was married, had a young daughter and was carrying a housing loan. An offer arrived from Jodhpur, an Indian restaurant in Dubai. “I calculated that in two years, if I work hard and I sustain myself, I'll be able to pay off the loan.” He left his wife and daughter behind in India and travelled to Dubai from Delhi. He intended to stay for two years. The road to Michelin Saubhagi Veer arrived in Dubai in 2015 to work for Zomato. Two months later, she lost her job because of structural changes. She found work with a public relations agency that represented Jodhpur and worked with Khullar to build the brand. Saubhagi Veer: Picture: Ashok Verma Veer subsequently joined Mint Leaf of London and persuaded its management to hire Khullar. He became chef-patron. She rose to chief executive. They owned equity. During the pandemic, they sometimes delivered orders in their own cars. She eventually resigned in December 2025. Khullar left in January 2026. They were invited as consultants to Nazaara, located a floor above Mint Leaf in the Emirates Financial Towers, DIFC. Khullar's menu included dahi golgappe, truffle malai tikka, lamb chops and dishes drawing on his childhood favourites. “I mean, you only cook the way you like to eat.” Within a few months, an invitation from Micheli