Maneet Chauhan

Maneet Chauhan, famous for her work as a chef in Chicago and New York and her TV gig as a judge on Food Network's Chopped, surprised people when she picked Nashville as the site of her first restaurant as proprietor. At the time, she'd been to Nashville exactly once, but she'd already developed a big crush on the city.

She didn't intend, however, to become a full-time Nashvillian. She and husband Vivek Deora planned to be based out of New York. "I was calling myself a 'Nash Yorker,' " she recalls, laughing.

But fate had other plans. Building her Gulch restaurant, Chauhan Ale & Masala House, took much longer than expected. "We were here quite some time," she tells the Scene. "And the day the restaurant opened, my son was born."

That little boy, named Karma, arrived three months early. "He was in the NICU at Centennial for three months," Chauhan says. "He kind of made the decision for us. ... My husband and I decided we were comfortable enough, we felt Nashville to be home enough, for us to go back to New York to wrap up everything and just move here."

It was scary, but now she can joke about it: "He was like, 'I am a Nashville boy, I'm going to be born in Nashville, and I'm going to live in Nashville.' "

Chauhan still travels to New York regularly to film Chopped, but her restaurant — a gastropub inspired by flavors of her native India, plus everything else she's learned in a career as an omnivorous chef — is a big hit, and she's put her feelings for Nashville to the test.

"The first time I came to Nashville, it was love at first landing — the charming hospitality, the people." Now, she says, it's more like "the comfort you start getting in a longtime relationship."

"The magic is still there, because every day you discover something new, you meet someone new and you get inspired by them."

Chauhan acknowledges she sounds like a gung ho Nashville booster. "I've become one of the biggest spokespersons for Nashville. Every time I'm traveling, I'm like, 'Hey, when are you guys coming to Nashville?' "

She tries to explain why she's so keen on the city. "In terms of the culinary industry, it's an extremely encouraging industry. It's not one of those cutthroat cities where people feel the need to pull you down to rise. You walk into a Nashville restaurant and you meet the owners and the chefs, and there's an instant connection — which makes me a better restaurateur, a better hospitality professional."

Then there's a dollars-and-cents factor. "The business aspect here is spectacular," she says, citing tourism and Nashville's fired-up food scene. "The palate of Nashvillians is very sophisticated."

But her Nashville love isn't completely blind: "As in anything, there are always challenges." She points to the delays getting the restaurant space built, the frustration of having to "push, push, push people." Another initial challenge: "getting adequate help in the kitchen, especially coming from New York, where you have a very high caliber of people who are looking for something exciting." In Nashville, "You just have to change your approach. You have very willing, extremely hard-working people, but you have to mold them, give them direction."

Chauhan recalls her own training; she graduated from the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., but her bachelor's is in hotel administration, a traditional path for chefs in India. It forced her to study a variety of hotel-related skills — accounting, marketing, wine selection, running the front desk, even how to mop a floor. She didn't appreciate it at the time, but she says it's served her well.

"When you're running a business, you have to do everything. It's amazing for me to know everything, and I still know nothing," she says, laughing.

Asked whether her knowledge and standards ever scare off the staffers she manages, she admits she sometimes has to manage herself. "I have a bad temper, but I have learned how to control it. I know flipping out on people is not a solution. I have established a rapport with my team where I've told them, 'Hey, listen, I need you to know: I will flip out if something stupid happens, but I'm not flipping out on you, I am flipping out on the situation.' That has helped a lot.

"This industry is all about the human relation," she adds, "how you can most efficiently make people work for you and enjoy it while they are at it."

Chauhan and her husband have two kids: Karma, now 15 months old, and daughter Shagun, 4. Deora, who's traveled the world as a restaurateur, oversees their brewery in Franklin, Mantra Artisan Ales.

Meanwhile, Chauhan plans to open two more restaurants this year. One will focus on "authentic regional Chinese cuisine"; the other is inspired by American diner fare. As for staffing, "We are getting talent from out of Nashville. Now that we've become Nashvillians, we're slowly getting people to come here and experience what we've fallen in love with."

More From the 2016 People Issue

The Celebrity Chef: Maneet Chauhan / The Gold Medalist: Scott Hamilton / The Perception Changer: Kent Wallace / The Blogger: Melissa Watkins / The Biker Chaplain: Allen Tanner / The Man: Charles Kaster / The Islamic Leader: Rashed Fakhruddin / The Tubatroll: Joe Hunter / The Dog: Doug the Pug / The Emancipator Impersonator: Dennis Boggs / The Booker: Kathryn Edwards / The Right Brain/Left Brain: Coke Sams and Clarke Gallivan / The Professional Ass-Kicker: Eric Young / The Watcher: Debbie Field