Sanjay Thumma (born 26 April 1970) popularly known as Vah-Chef, is an Indian
celebrity chef
A celebrity chef is a kitchen chef who has become a celebrity. Today, chefs often become celebrities by presenting cookery advice and demonstrations, usually through the media of television and radio, or in Books, printed publications. While telev ...
,
entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones.
An entreprene ...
, restaurateur and television personality. He is the founder of the cooking website, vahrehvah.com. He is especially popular among the Indian-expatriate communities across the world, especially for his unique comedic style. He became known for his online recipe channel on
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
, which he started in 2007, with over 750 million views.
[It’s cooking on YouTube]
The Hindu
''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...
, 25 April 2009. He is one of the three judges in the
first season of ''
MasterChef India – Telugu
''MasterChef India – Telugu'' (or colloquially ''MasterChef Telugu'') is an Indian Telugu-language competitive cooking reality show based on ''MasterChef Australia'' and is part of ''MasterChef India''. Produced by Endemol Shine India and c ...
''.
Early life
Sanjay Thumma was born in Hyderabad. His interest in the kitchen began when he was just 7 years old. His mother would engage him in the kitchen so that he would not annoy his siblings. His first dishes were dosa and scrambled eggs. His desire to cook increased when his mother was bedridden with a temporary illness and he had to cook for himself. He eventually went on to get his diploma in Hotel Management from the
Institute of Hotel Management
The Institute of Hotel Management, Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition (IHMCT&AN), generally known as the Institute of Hotel Management (IHM), is a multi-location public hospitality school in India. IHM is established by the Ministry of ...
in Hyderabad. He is married to Ragini, who is also a chef, with whom he has a son.
Career
Thumma opened his first restaurant, Sizzle India, in Chicago in 1998. Over the next seven years, he opened three more. He eventually sold his restaurants as he felt that as a chef he hardly got a chance to cook.
In September 2007, he set up a studio in
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
and started recording his first 150 recipes, which he posted on YouTube on his channel ''VahChef'', soon becoming a sensation, and each video reaching over a million views. His channel went on to become viral and gained a large following among Indian communities all over the world. His channel crossed 750 million views with 2.3 million subscribers and more than 2,000 videos. He adds 10 to 12 new videos each month, with thousands of views within hours.
He moved back to India in 2008 with his family and launched his own website, vahrehvah.com. In 2014, his channel had 1.45 million subscribers.
/ref> As of June 2021, his YouTube channel has 2.39 million subscribers.
Filmography
Television
Awards
* 2018 – OSM Foodie/Chef of the Year at Outlook Social Media Awards
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thumma, Sanjay
1970 births
Telugu people
Indian chefs
Living people
Chefs of Indian cuisine
Businesspeople from Hyderabad, India
Indian television personalities