Ajai Sharma | International Chef, Author And Host

• ByStartupStory     |    January 19, 2021

“Always follow your heart and decision regardless of what people are following”, says Ajai Sharma.

It’s not easy to listen to one’s personal calling every time and not everyone is brave enough to do so. Ajai Sharma, a chef, a host, and an author, talks about his capabilities and challenges in a conversation with Startup Story Media. Today we will take you on the journey of a person who decided to listen to his “personal calling”, no matter what people said to him.

The journey begins

Born in the city of Meerut, Ajai started his school journey from Meerut and ended it in Saudi Arabia and pursued his graduation in hotel management. Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel administration, Manipal and later moved to pursue his associate’s degree in Culinary Arts at The Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park New York in 2019

It was his passion for cooking that encouraged him towards hospitality administration and from this passion he decided to be a chef by his own choice. He talks about the mentality of people and talks about all the risks which come in the journey when you choose a creative field because society doesn’t respect and accept every work as work, and as a child, he faced challenges, was criticized because he decided to be a chef. He told us about how people judged him when he decided to be a chef as every student around him was either choosing engineering or accounting.

A generation of dreamers

Ajai’s parents were very supportive and believed in him and his dreams even before he did.  Ajai started cooking with his mom at the age of 10. His father was very supportive as he had not been able to do his own dreamwork because of the mentality of society and didn’t want the same thing to happen to him.

Ajai speaks about an incident when his principal and teacher asked him about what he wanted to be in the future, and out of innocence, he said that he wanted to cook food for the prime minister of India. After hearing this, everyone around him started to laugh.

An inspiration to look up to

Ajai had written blogs and these blogs were all about his dreams. He said one should never give up on his dreams, no matter what people say.

The founder also shared his experience of writing a book, “The Culinary Epic of Jeddah” which is a journey of the author in the Arabian land in pursuit of recipes from the province. The book was first rejected but was later published and, he also garnered praise for his determination. Ajai also has a  podcast with the intent of motivating people and helping them overcome their frustrated in this pandemic situation.

Speaking about his dreams, Ajai said that  since childhood his ambitions were different because of his passion for analysis and talked about the time when master chef season-1 happened and then he told his mother that he wanted to be a chef. Initially cooking food was his hobby but after master chef season 1, Ajai was determined to be a professional chef.

Ajai admires and respects Chef Vikas Khanna as he motivates him and had also interacted with him on different occasions.

A Message to the Young

“One should never kill the child which is inside them, it’s okay if you are illogical and innocent but never kill that child and always work hard for your dreams no matter what people say and think about you because hard work pays off. The harder you work today for something, the greater you’ll feel when you achieve that thing.”-Ajai Sharma

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