Maneet Chauhan

Few chefs have done more to put Indian flavors at the heart of mainstream American dining than Maneet Chauhan. Born in Ludhiana in the Indian state of Punjab and now happily rooted in Nashville, Tennessee, she has built a remarkable career as a chef, restaurateur, cookbook author and television personality. Her cooking is joyful and generous, weaving the chaat stalls of her childhood into gastropub menus, tasting menus and even a fast-casual spot at Walt Disney World.

Millions of viewers know her as the warm, sharp-eyed judge on Food Network’s Chopped, a seat she has held for well over a decade. Competition fans know her as something even rarer: the first two-time champion of Guy Fieri’s Tournament of Champions, with titles in 2021 and 2024. Away from the cameras she leads Morph Hospitality Group with her husband, chef and restaurateur Vivek Deora, and continues to prove that Punjabi spice and Southern hospitality are natural best friends.

TL;DR

• Indian American chef born 27 October 1976 in Ludhiana, Punjab, India.
• Longtime judge on Food Network’s Chopped and winner of the 2012 James Beard Foundation Broadcast Media Award.
• The first two-time Tournament of Champions winner, taking the title in 2021 and again in 2024.
• Co-founder of Morph Hospitality Group in Nashville, home of her flagship Chauhan Ale & Masala House.
• Author of the IACP Award-winning cookbook Chaat, and founder of eet by Maneet Chauhan at Disney Springs in Florida.

Maneet Chauhan key facts

Maneet Chauhan: career timeline

From Ludhiana to hotel school

Maneet Chauhan was born on 27 October 1976 in Ludhiana, a bustling industrial city in Punjab in northern India, and grew up in a Punjabi Sikh household where food was the language of love. She has often described how her earliest memories revolve around eating: the sizzle of street vendors frying puris, the perfume of cardamom and cumin in the family kitchen, and the generous communal meals that define Punjabi culture. While her classmates dreamed of conventional careers, young Maneet was the kid who genuinely wanted to know what was for dinner, why it tasted the way it did, and how she could make it herself.

That curiosity turned into a calling. Rather than treating cooking as a hobby, she pursued it with academic seriousness, a pattern that would repeat throughout her career. Punjab gave her an instinct for bold spicing and open-hearted hospitality, and those twin gifts would eventually travel with her halfway around the world.

A leap across the world

Chauhan trained first at the WelcomGroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration at Manipal, one of India’s most respected hospitality schools, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in hotel management. She sharpened her skills as an apprentice with India’s legendary hotel companies, including the Oberoi, Taj and Sheraton groups, learning the discipline and precision of grand hotel kitchens.

Hungry for more, she crossed the ocean to attend the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, graduating in 2000. The CIA gave her classical technique and a new professional network, and it clearly left an impression on both sides: two decades later her alma mater honored her with an Augie Award, its recognition for alumni and industry leaders who shape American food culture.

Finding her voice in American kitchens

Chauhan’s first stateside job out of culinary school took her to Cherry Hill, New Jersey, where she was hired in 2000 to help manage a startup restaurant. She led the team as the dining room doubled its capacity from 70 seats to 140, an early sign that she could run a business as confidently as a kitchen.

The real breakthrough came in 2003, when she became the opening executive chef of Vermilion in Chicago at just 27 years old. The restaurant’s daring premise, blending Indian and Latin American cuisines, could have gone sideways in lesser hands. In Chauhan’s, it became a critical darling, earning national press and putting her name on the map as one of the most exciting young chefs in the country. In 2007 she moved to New York City to open its sister restaurant, At Vermilion, carrying her signature global fusion style, always rooted in Indian flavors, to an even bigger stage.

Television: Chopped, trophies and a national audience

In 2010, Food Network invited Chauhan to join the judging panel of Chopped, and television audiences immediately took to her. Warm but exacting, she brought deep technical knowledge, an encyclopedic understanding of spice, and a knack for delivering criticism with kindness. Her broadcast work earned her the James Beard Foundation Broadcast Media Award in 2012, one of the highest honors in American food media.

Her television resume kept growing from there. She competed on The Next Iron Chef, appeared on Iron Chef America and Guy’s Grocery Games, cooked on the Today show and The View, and judged the finale of Worst Cooks in America. Through it all she remained a fixture at the Chopped judging table, where she still sits today.

Tournament of Champions history

Guy Fieri’s Tournament of Champions, Food Network’s bracket-style battle of culinary heavyweights, gave Chauhan the chance to step out from behind the judging table and compete. She seized it spectacularly, winning the 2021 tournament against a field of the best competition cooks in America.

In 2024 she did what no one had ever done and won it again, becoming the first two-time Tournament of Champions winner and taking home a 150,000 dollar prize as more than 15 million viewers followed the season. For a chef best known as a judge, it was delicious vindication: proof that she could deliver under the clock just as brilliantly as she critiques.

Nashville, Morph Hospitality and a growing family of restaurants

In 2014 Chauhan made a bet that surprised many observers: she chose Nashville, Tennessee, a city then better known for hot chicken and honky-tonks than for saag or samosas, as the home of her first restaurant. Chauhan Ale & Masala House opened in August 2014 with about 150 seats, pairing Indian spice with Southern comfort and craft beer. Nashville embraced it enthusiastically, and more than a decade later it remains the flagship of her restaurant group and one of the city’s defining dining rooms.

With her husband Vivek Deora she built Morph Hospitality Group to grow that vision. In 2017 came The Mockingbird, a playful modern diner created with chefs Brian Riggenbach and Mikey Corona, serving globe-trotting comfort food a few steps from the mothership. In December 2023 she took her cooking beyond Tennessee for the first time, opening eet by Maneet Chauhan at Disney Springs near Orlando, a colorful fast-casual celebration of Indian street food that introduces her flavors to millions of theme park visitors.

Chauhan shows no sign of slowing down. In 2026 alone she is headlining marquee events including the South Beach Wine & Food Festival in Miami and the New York City Wine & Food Festival, alongside appearances at food shows and charity dinners across the country. Wherever she cooks, the mission stays the same: to show that Indian food belongs everywhere, from fine dining to the fairground.

Restaurants

Awards and honours

Watch Maneet Chauhan

See Maneet in action in this video.

Signature dishes

Chaat is the beating heart of Maneet Chauhan’s cooking: the crunchy, tangy, sweet-and-spicy family of Indian street snacks that she grew up devouring and later celebrated in an entire cookbook. Think gol gappa shattering into spiced water, dahi puri layered with yogurt and chutneys, and pav bhaji piled onto buttered buns. At Chauhan Ale & Masala House she became famous for joyful Indian-Southern mashups such as tandoori chicken poutine with masala fries and hot chicken pakoras, dishes that treat fusion not as a gimmick but as autobiography.

Cookbooks

Maneet is the author of books including Flavors of My World: A Culinary Tour Through 25 Countries, The Journey, Chaat: The Best Recipes from the Kitchens, Markets, and Railways of India.

Personal life

Chauhan lives in Nashville with her husband, chef and restaurateur Vivek Deora, whom she married in 2007, and their two children, daughter Shagun and son Karma. The couple are business partners as well as life partners, running Morph Hospitality Group together. Away from the kitchen she is a dedicated philanthropist who has cooked for fundraisers benefiting underprivileged children in India and disaster relief efforts abroad, and she serves as a mentor and role model for young chefs, particularly women and immigrants finding their way in the American restaurant industry.

Maneet in context

Maneet Chauhan is one of many chefs and food personalities profiled on Pickup Table 4, alongside Kristen Kish and Antonia Lofaso.

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Maneet Chauhan FAQ

Who is Maneet Chauhan?
Maneet Chauhan is an Indian American chef, restaurateur, author and television personality, best known as a longtime judge on Food Network’s Chopped and as the founder of Chauhan Ale & Masala House in Nashville, Tennessee.

Has Maneet Chauhan won Tournament of Champions?
Yes, twice. She won Guy Fieri’s Tournament of Champions in 2021 and again in 2024, making her the first two-time champion in the show’s history.

What restaurants does Maneet Chauhan own?
Through Morph Hospitality Group she runs Chauhan Ale & Masala House and The Mockingbird in Nashville, plus eet by Maneet Chauhan at Disney Springs in Florida, which opened in December 2023.

What cookbooks has Maneet Chauhan written?
She has written Flavors of My World, contributed to The Journey, and co-authored Chaat: The Best Recipes from the Kitchens, Markets, and Railways of India with Jody Eddy, which won an IACP Cookbook Award.

Where is Maneet Chauhan from?
She was born on 27 October 1976 in Ludhiana, Punjab, India, and moved to the United States to study at the Culinary Institute of America. She has lived in Nashville, Tennessee, since 2014.

Is Maneet Chauhan still on Chopped?
Yes. She remains one of the show’s most beloved judges and continues to appear in new episodes and specials, alongside her restaurant work and festival appearances.

Sources and further reading

This profile draws on reputable references including Wikipedia, Food Network, Culinary Institute of America, NYC Wine & Food Festival.