Arnav Kamulkar ’26 — or @chefarnav on Instagram — made ripples on campus with his private, music-inspired pop-up restaurant experience, CENA, in the fall of 2023.
Just over a year later, CENA now thrives as a meal-prep business, with the School of Hotel Administration student taking on further culinary endeavors — most recently, competing on season four of Fox’s Next Level Chef featuring celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. The fourth season began on Feb. 13.
Contestants on the show compete in a three-level kitchen, first fighting to land a spot on one of three cooking teams. As the show progresses, contestants are eliminated until a single winner receives a $250,000 prize and a year of mentorship from all three judges.
Kamulkar’s appearance on television began with a LinkedIn request to apply from a casting agent who “stumbled upon [his] Instagram” during the fall semester of his sophomore year. Though he initially believed the opportunity was spam, Kamulkar realized the offer’s legitimacy and began a lengthy vetting process to join the show.
“It was like 80 questions, all of them short answers, and then over the next two or three months, I went through like five or six rounds of interviews as the casting team sort of cut down the applicants from like thousands to just like 24,” Kamulkar said.
Kamulkar learned he was cast on the show in December 2023, a few months after receiving the scout’s message.
While Next Level Chef was an opportunity for professional visibility, it also served as a valuable networking resource when Kamulkar stepped down from an internship last summer and began reaching out to chefs associated with the show.
After Kamulkar connected with Chef Brandon Rogers, who offered Kamulkar the opportunity to work with him at a Chicago NASCAR race and later as a private chef for NFL players in Florida.
Though Kamulkar grew up cooking at home with his mother, he said he was undecided about his career path when he entered Cornell. He was initially considering the possibility of entering into business or consulting.
Kamulkar believes all of his courses at Cornell have taught him transferrable skills and helped guide his career toward culinary work.
“If it wasn't for the motto of ‘any person, any study,’ I don't think I would have been exposed to so many opportunities and career paths,” Kamulkar said.
Kamulkar served in the fall as an undergraduate course assistant in “Managerial Accounting,” taught by Prof. Asís Martínez-Jerez, accounting.
“He’s not one that does things just following the rules — he wants to understand,” Martinez-Jerez said about Kamulkar. “He’s a student [who] needs curiosity, wants to learn why and finds creative solutions to problems and gets to the essence of things.”
In addition to his time at Cornell, Kamulkar credits his summer experiences and Next Level Chef with solidifying his direction in the food and beverage industry.
“Being on the show itself was [the] deciding moment where I think I really [needed] to decide what I want to do in life,” Kamulkar said.
Anjelina Gonzalez is a Sun staff writer and can be reached at ang54@cornell.edu.
