Jehangir Mehta is a celebrity chef, restaurateur, television personality, and cookbook author. After working at several critically acclaimed restaurants in New York City for celebrity chefs Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Rocco Dispirito, Mehta decided to open his own food and wine bar, Graffiti in 2007. Graffiti received much media attention for Chef Mehta, including features on the Martha Stewart show, NBC, Fox News, ABC, and The Dr. Oz Show.
Chef Jehangir made his television debut in 2009 when he challenged Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto on Iron Chef America’s Battle Coconut episode. Mehta narrowly lost to the Iron Chef by a mere two points but did not let that stop him from continuing his career in television. Soon after, Chef Mehta compteted on Food Network’s The Next Iron Chef where he finished second to Celebrity Chef Jose Garces in the final episode. Chef Jehangir has also appeared on Cooking Channel’s Unique Sweets.
Mehta is the author of cookbook, Mantra: The Rules of Indulgence, in which he offers inventive recipes for desserts and other dishes which he created at his food and wine bar, Graffiti. He has been featured in publications such as Gourmet, New York Post, Bon Appetit, The New York Times, Vogue, and has been the subject of blogs published on Grubb Street, DailyCandy, and Restaurant News.
The celebrity chef is also an advocate for helping to teach children to enjoy healthy food. Mehta was one of the first celebrity chefs to identify the problem of kids eating unhealthy and act on it by starting a private cooking class for children called Candy Camp. Since then, Jehangir has teamed up with organizations like Whole Foods, Scholastics, Kids Food Festivals, and Children’s Museum of Manhattan to further his cause with programs like Gastro Kids After School which he runs out of his restaurant in Tribeca, Mehtaphor.