Avishar Barua always anticipated his career would one day require him to wear a white coat.
But for most of his life, he envisioned working as a doctor rather than a chef, since as a child he was almost pathologically indifferent to food. Barua, who currently serves as the executive chef and general manager of Service Bar, recalled how he would draw the ire of his parents on those rare times the family went to McDonald’s, ordering the Happy Meal solely as a means to get the included toy and ignoring the burger and fries boxed alongside it.
Growing up in Delaware and later in Gahanna, Barua said he had to be “tricked” into eating the food cooked by his homemaker mother, who emigrated with his anesthesiologist father from Bangladesh to the United States, first landing in Detroit, Michigan, and later settling in Columbus, where Barua was born.