Vivek Singh (chef)

Vivek Singh
Executive Chef & CEO Vivek Singh
Born	6 May 1971 Asansol, West Bengal, India
Nationality	Indian
Education	Institute of Hotel Management, New Delhi, Oberoi Centre for Learning and Development, New Delhi
Occupation	Chef & author
Known for	Modern Indian food
Spouse(s)	Archana Singh
Website	http://viveksingh.co.uk

Vivek Singh (born 6 May 1971) is a London-based Indian chef, restaurateur, and media personality known for his innovative take on Indian cuisine. He is currently the Executive Chef at three London based Indian restaurants, The Cinnamon Club, Cinnamon Kitchen and Cinnamon Soho. Singh is a regular face on BBC's Saturday Kitchen, and has been featured on television shows including Madhur Jaffrey's Curry Nation, At Home with Rachel Allen and NDTV Good Times – Will Travel for Food.

Singh grew up in a coal-mining community in Bengal where his father worked as an engineer. He attended a Christian Brothers school in Asansol called St. Patrick's Higher Secondary School. Like most traditional Indian families, it was expected that Singh would follow in his father's footsteps and go on to become an engineer. Instead he announced that he wanted to become a chef.

Singh went to catering college at The Institute of Hotel Management in New Delhi from 1990–1993 and was selected to join the Oberoi Centre for Learning and Development that year. In 1995, having completed three years of training at The Oberoi, The Oberoi Maidens and the Delhi Oberoi flight services, Singh was offered the job of running the kitchen at The Oberoi flight services in Mumbai.Following this, Singh joined the five-star Oberoi Grand in Kolkata. In 1997, Singh took over the running of Gharana, an Indian restaurant specialising in the cuisine of India's Royal Courts. The following year, he became the Indian chef at RajVilas in Jaipur. Singh met PR guru Iqbal Wahhab, at a wedding reception at Rajvilas hotel and talked about Indian food using French cooking methods. They opened their first flagship restaurant, The Cinnamon Club, in London in March 2001. On 21 January 2015, Singh received an honorary doctorate from the University of Warwick for his contribution to the development of Indian cuisine in the United Kingdom.