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Aanal KotakCelebrity Chef & Entrepreneur

Celebrity chef, founder of The Secret Kitchen

Aanal in an embroidered black chef coat in a forest-themed dining room
ARRIVED · SCHAUMBURGAPRIL 2026Chicago

From Gujarat’s kitchen, to the world’s table.

Chef Aanal Kotak is the celebrity chef behind The Secret Kitchen. Gujarat knows her from Colors Gujarati, India from MasterChef India, and diners in seven cities across four countries from her restaurants.

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As seen on

  • MasterChef India
  • Colors Gujarati
  • Sony TV
  • TEDx
  • WGN-TV Chicago
  • Curly Tales

Seven kitchens, live.

Real local time in every city we cook in, and what each kitchen is doing right now.

Departures · Kitchens now

Vadodara --:--

  • VadodaraChecking…Local time --:--BDQ · 2017
  • AhmedabadChecking…Local time --:--AMD · 2018
  • RajkotChecking…Local time --:--RAJ · 2023
  • PatanChecking…Local time --:--PTN · 2023
  • SydneyChecking…Local time --:--SYD · 2022
  • VaughanChecking…Local time --:--YYZ · 2024
  • SchaumburgChecking…Local time --:--ORD · 2026
  • MumbaiChecking…Local time --:--BOM · Next
  • DubaiChecking…Local time --:--DXB · Next

Live local time. Status from each kitchen’s published service hours, as of November 2026.

2017First Secret Kitchen opens in Vadodara
4Countries: India, Australia, Canada, USA
7Cities with a Secret Kitchen
~90%Of every outlet’s gravy bases made in one Baroda factory
VERIFIED FACT SHEETNOVEMBER 2026As of

Gujarat knows her face from television.

A regular celebrity chef on Colors Gujarati since 2012, and a guest chef on MasterChef India Season 7 with Vikas Khanna, Ranveer Brar and Garima Arora. Long before the restaurants, home cooks across Gujarat were cooking along with her.

2012
First episode as a culinary expert on Gujarati TV
S7
MasterChef India guest chef, Sony TV
3
Languages on camera: Gujarati, Hindi, English
Her screen creditsTV & brand enquiries
Aanal Kotak on the MasterChef India set with judges Vikas Khanna, Ranveer Brar and Garima Arora, each holding her cookbook
MasterChef India · Sony TV
Chef Aanal KotakWith the MasterChef India judges
Aanal on the Rasoi Show set at Colors Gujarati, holding a plated dish in front of the show's glowing logo
Colors Gujarati
Chef Aanal KotakThe Rasoi Show

Screen credits

  • Colors Gujarati · 2012 – nowRasoi ShowCelebrity chef, a regular on the show
  • Sony TV · SonyLIV · 2023MasterChef India, Season 7Guest chef, Holi special
  • TEDx · 2025IIT GandhinagarSpeaker, “From Passion to Power”
  • WGN-TV · 2026ChicagoFeatured on the TSK USA launch
  • Curly Tales · 2023Stories from BharatFeatured, “Gujarat’s youngest celebrity chef”
  • Web series · 2017 – 2023Eat Street · The Foodies · Kitchen Magician · Maa Ki RasoiChef

Where would you like to go?

Six doors into the world of Aanal Kotak. Pick one, or keep scrolling: nothing here blocks the page.

Every new city, she lands first.

From one Vadodara kitchen in 2017 to three continents: the openings, in her own photographs.

From Nani’s kitchen to three continents.

Scan any TSK pack and you land on its stop. Here is the whole journey.

  1. Aanal tasting a raw mango with a fruit seller at the market
    The market

    Where the masala begins

    Raw mangoes, green chillies, the morning bazaar. A Gujarati kitchen starts with what is fresh.

    Her story →
  2. Aanal laughing over her handwritten recipe notebooks
    The notebook

    10,000 handwritten recipes

    Eighteen months of failed preservative-free gravies, until one sentence from Nani about pickles fixed them.

    How it began →
  3. Aanal at the TSK HoReCa products booth at Aahar 2023
    Baroda

    The factory

    Our own retort line and labs. About 90% of the gravy bases and masalas for every TSK kitchen.

    Trade catalogue →
  4. CONTAINER · TSK/BDQ → SYD · YYZ · ORDSealed & declaredSPICE BOARD · ALLERGENS · CUSTOMS
    In transit

    The container

    Sealed, certified and declared: Spice Board papers, allergen sheets, a portal for every country.

    Export and import →
  5. Aanal garnishing a red, flower-like dessert with tweezers
    Three continents

    The plate

    Vadodara, Sydney, Vaughan, Schaumburg. The same taste, plated with a little couture.

    Find a table →

An invitation for partners.

Four desks, one playbook. Each pass opens a page built for that conversation, with the facts first.

Her passport, stamped.

Television, keynotes, an industry chapter, a cookbook and the awards. Every stamp is on the verified fact sheet.

  • 2023MasterChef India Guest chef, Season 7 (Sony)
  • 2012–Colors Gujarati Celebrity chef, Rasoi Show
  • 2025TEDx IIT Gandhinagar “From Passion to Power”
  • 2025–NRAI Ahmedabad Chapter Head
  • 2022Secrets of a Professional Kitchen Cookbook, foreword by Vikas Khanna
  • 2024Entrepreneur India 35 Under 35
  • 2021Restaurant India Woman Chef of the Year
  • 2019Indian Restaurant Congress Best Chef-Led Restaurant, Female
Stage & Screen · press kit
Aanal speaking into a microphone at a corporate event
Aanal beside a wall of framed press features at TSK Chicago
Aanal at the NRAI Food Delivery Summit 2026 press conference
Aanal holding her cookbook, Secrets of a Professional Kitchen
Aanal smiling, resting her chin on her hands
Rejected at 19 for being too young. A year later she won, and has been unstoppable since.

The mohanthal question, the runaway mehendi, opening night in 2017 and a factory born from one sentence of Nani’s, told in chapters for those who want them.

Read her story

The recipes Gujarat saves.

Her most-loved home recipes, in her own words and quantities. Tens of thousands of kitchens have already made them.

All recipes