How a Michelin-recognised chef built chole bhature business in Dubai; he sells it for ₹500 as people queue for hours

Pradeep Khullar, an Indian-origin Michelin-recognised chef, was bewildered and facing financial hardship when his peers were filling out forms to secure admission to premier engineering colleges. Little did he know that fate had other plans for him! Khullar was 15 years old when his father passed away after battling cancer in 1998.

Most of the family's savings had gone towards his father's treatment, leaving them in financial difficulty. His mother took up a job and also started running a small boutique in Delhi's Rohini neighbourhood. “We were doing very well, but unfortunately, I lost my dad when I was in grade 10 because of cancer.” To make ends meet, his mother found a job while also running a small tailoring boutique in Rohini, Delhi, where the family lived.

She managed the orders, measurements, customers and deliveries herself. “She used to wake up at five, do the chores, send us to school, go to work at her day job. At six, she would go to the tailoring boutique, fill in the orders and the measurements, and then speak to the customers," Khullar told Emirates 24/7.

Khullar, who was in Class 10 at the time, recalled how those years were extremely challenging. By the time Khullar reached Class 12, his classmates were preparing for medical and engineering entrance examinations with the help of coaching classes. However, he was unsure about his career, mainly due to financial constraints.

He also secured admission to a university but had to give up the seat because the fee was ₹4,00,000. One Sunday morning, while playing cricket with his friends, one of them mentioned that he had a hotel management application form. He had originally bought it for his sister, but she no longer needed it.

He handed the form to Khullar, who completed the application, cleared the interview and group discussion rounds, and secured admission to a college in Delhi. “It was not going to cost us a lot. It's just the tuition fee because I lived in the same city and would use the local transport.

It led me to do hotel management," he told the publication. From hotel management trainee to Michelin recognitionKhullar began his career as a kitchen management trainee in Delhi in 2004, working long shifts. He later worked with Indian Accent, Old World Hospitality and Lite Bite Foods before moving to Dubai in 2015.

By then, he was married, had a daughter, and was also carrying the financial burden of repaying his home loan. That year, he received an offer from Jodhpur, an Indian restaurant in Dubai, which proved to be a turning point in his life. Khullar accepted the job offer, calculating that he would be able to pay off his loan within two years if he worked hard and managed to sustain himself.

He moved to Dubai, leaving his wife and daughter behind in India, with the initial plan of staying there for just two years. Khullar and his business partner, Saubhagi Veer, eventually worked together at Mint Leaf of London, where he became chef-patron. Their subsequent consulting stint at Nazaara earned the restaurant a place among the Michelin Guide's new selections in October 2026, Emirates 24/7 reported.

Despite achieving Michelin recognition, Khullar and Veer left Nazaara in early 2026 to start their own venture, Bhaturewala, funded entirely through their personal savings. How childhood nostalgia inspired Bhaturewala in DubaiThe duo opened Bhaturewala on October 16, 2026, in Dubai's Oud Metha neighbourhood. The restaurant serves chole bhature, a popular North Indian street food, which rekindled Khullar's childhood memories of buying the dish on Sundays in Delhi.

Khullar and Veer found a small shop in Dubai's Oud Metha neighbourhood and began transforming it into a speciality restaurant. The space had previously been occupied by businesses that failed to take off. Veer recalled being warned that their venture was unlikely to attract customers. "Don't expect anybody to show up." The investment came from their personal savings.

“Everything's bootstrapped,” Veer said. Khullar wanted to keep the price of the dish affordable for customers, setting it at AED 20 (approximately ₹517). Bhaturewala opened its doors in Dubai's Oud Metha neighbourhood on October 16, 2026.

The restaurant operates on Fridays from 6pm to 8pm, while its weekend hours are split between 9am and 11am and 6pm and 8pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Customers queue for over an hour, but chef refuses to compromise on quality At Bhaturewala, one customer once waited for over an hour to receive his order. Khullar, who was working near the service window, was called over by the man.

“I thought he was going to hit me,” he recalled. However, instead of expressing anger over the delay, the customer pulled him towards the window and hugged him. Khullar asked him, “Aren't you upset?” “For what?” “You waited for more than one hour.” “No, this is pure love, man.

Don't drop the quality. Continue with this.” Surprised by the response, Khullar told him, “If you guys keep showing up, we'll continue.” While some customers have returned for every service, others have complained about long waiting times, parking difficulties and food running out before they could place an order. Some have also alleged that the duo deliberately limits production to create demand.

Responding to such criticism, Veer asks, “Why would I not want to take your money?” She regularly monitors customer reviews and responds to complaints, with some feedback prompting changes to the restaurant's operating hours and service procedures. Khullar starts his day as early as 4am, preparing lassis, while Veer arrives later to handle pickles, accompaniments, labelling and other service-related preparations. The demanding schedule has also taken a toll on their sleep.

“We're sleeping only two hours every weekend,” Khullar says. Veer adds, “At 5.30pm there’s so much anxiety building up, I feel like we're going in the evening for an exam.”