On the path to becoming a celebrity chef on the Food Network, Maneet Chauhan opened her own restaurants, wrote the cookbook Flavors of My World, and got married. She also became a mother.
"To me it was a natural evolution — I'll have my career, I'll do what I'm doing and meet the right person and then have children,” she says. After a long-distance relationship, Maneet tied the knot with international restaurateur Vivek Deora. The two life partners soon became business partners and welcomed daughter Shagun (which means “blessing”), now 9-years-old.
When the family came to Nashville to open Chauhan Ale & Masala House during the city’s burgeoning food scene in 2014, they intended to head back to New York, but fate had other plans. Son Karma, now 6-years-old, was born three months premature the day the restaurant opened. "We were starting a new business with a baby in the neonatal ICU,” Maneet says. “It's a very emotional time for a parent. "The way the entire city rallied around us was heartwarming, so I think that's the time we were like, 'OK, we have arrived home.'"
The Nashville residents have since started three additional eateries in the city — Chaatable, The Mockingbird, and Tànsuǒ. That’s in addition to appearing on Iron Chef and The Next Iron Chef, and eventually becoming a full-time judge on the network’s hugely popular competition series Chopped.
Here the award-winning super chef discusses how she juggles her career with being a mom.
How have you balanced your career with being a mother?
The way I balance my career and motherhood is by making sure that I’m present in the moment. When I’m with my family, I give 100% to that moment.
When I’m working at home, I’m always multi-tasking. I’ll have the TV going and be on the phone and looking at something on the iPad. But when it’s time with the kids, all my attention is on them.
What advice would you give to other moms who are trying to balance all aspects of life?
Don’t be too hard on yourself. It’s OK to have a messy house and not take perfect pictures of everything. It’s OK if by the time your kids are ready to go out, they’re already messy. The biggest thing is just to give yourself a break and not worry about being perfect.
Do you cook with your children?
All the time! The kitchen is the heart of our house for all four of us. We love cooking and baking, and since the pandemic, we’ve been doing so much baking.
For work, I make lots of videos, and my daughter, who is nine but acts like she’s 16, has become the official taster and camera person.
How else do you support your kids’ happiness?
One of biggest things I do with my kids is to try to listen to what they’re saying, and to be interested in what they are interested in.
With my daughter, we found cooking together. Of course, she finds cooking interesting when it’s translated to the camera. She likes it when we can make videos and demonstrations.
My son has made me a complete Marvel fan. Now we do Q&As all about the Marvel universe, and I know which planet Thor and Loki and Star-Lord’s dad are from. It’s a way to spend time together and pay attention to the things they like.
How has your relationship as a mom changed over time?
For me, the most fun part of parenthood is getting to see their personalities develop.
When they’re very little, they’re in that “yes, mommy,” “no, mommy” stage and then as they get older, they enter that “why” stage, where they question everything with a genuine curiosity.
Of course, when they get older, they learn exactly how to get under your nerves, they know how to test you. And then they learn to stand on their own, and it’s just so fun to see who they become and how their personalities develop.
What’s next for you?
Last year has been weird for all of us! I feel so fortunate, however, to be back on set and doing what I love.
As far as our businesses, we’re working hard to resolidify our foundation and to continue to take care of our dedicated employees.
Vivek and I used the last year as a lesson for our kids. To show them that adversity will come your way, but it’s how you stand up to it that makes you the person that you are. It’s all a learning experience!
AUTHOR
Shari Goldhagen is a magazine writer and editor and the author of the novels Family and Other Accidents and In Some Other World, Maybe, as well as the YA novel 100 Days of Cake. Her work has appeared in scores of publications including, Cosmopolitan, salon.com, and Us Weekly. Though she somehow lives in Florida, she will always be a New Yorker at heart.