I come from a family of high achievers which perhaps explains my subconscious conditioning to want to excel in any field that I engage with. Thanks to my Mother’s genes I, inherited some of her magical touch with food and have always enjoyed Cooking . Little wonder then that the Home-Science course at School was my preferred subject and all this somehow came together to my becoming a driving force behind a cafeteria at my high school in Sanawar. This was a memorable moment of my life. Unfortunately pursuing Culinary Arts didn’t even cross my mind; in those days, a Chef did not really feature in the acceptable list of professions. Cooking was just a hobby just like classical dancing was for me and even though I excelled in both, make them a career choice was not an option. However, even if I had to go by the choice of subjects that I actually ended up making in college and my education thereafter, I perhaps would have followed both my older brothers into the world of finance, had destiny not decreed otherwise.
Mumbai -The Maximum City- almost always holds surprises for its inhabitants. Much to the horror of my elder brothers (who had taken upon themselves the Herculean role of fathering me after my father had passed away) and without any solicitation on my part, I started getting many offers for modelling assignments.
As film offers followed, my brothers’ protective instincts heightened and I was only permitted roles as a young mother. And it was made very clear to me that – at no time was any of this ok if it was at the expense of my studies!
During this time after completing my post-graduation course, I got married into a wonderful family. I was lucky to get an extremely supportive husband. However after dabbling in a few T.V serials and movies, I soon realised they were not really my cup of tea.
Four years into my marriage, I had a baby boy. As I transitioned from a ‘reel mother’ to a “real mother” I woke up to many responsibilities, including that of feeding my bundle of joy after the breast-feeding phase was over!! Now being a bit of a stickler for cleanliness and health, and of course the immense love for my child, drove me into the kitchen where I took charge of everything that went into my child’s stomach. So whether it was cutting veggies/ fruits or washing them along with the utensils used for cooking/serving with my own hands, or going crazy reading books and taking inspiration from chefs to create innovative recipes for my so called “fussy eater” I was doing it all and loving every second of it. Yes it became an obsession, so much so that for two years I didn’t even think of restarting work.
However as destiny would have it, our family friend and MasterChef, Sanjeev Kapoor came to visit my son. On hearing my tales of how I was using innovative tricks to feed my son healthy food, he offered me a show dedicated to cooking for kids called “Mummy Ka Magic” and asked me to showcase my stories on TV.
The show struck a chord and two years into it I was getting appreciation from parents all over India. I now began to feel a sense of responsibility towards people who said they were looking to me for solutions. So to hone my skills further, I went to @Sunrice- The Global Chef Academy in Singapore for an advanced culinary course and came back to work with Inter-Continental Hotel, a leading 5 Star Hotel in Mumbai, to get some commercial kitchen experience as well!
Soon I started being known as the Mommy Chef , who assists hassled mothers to connect with their children, using food as a medium. This increased my engagement with cooking as I now started spending a lot more hours in my kitchen to come up with healthy and yet fun food options for the people who were tuning in to my shows to get some guidance.
A high point of my life was when I was invited to speak at TEDx, a highly popular and prestigious knowledge sharing platform where I spoke about what is wrong with the “Child-Food Equation.”
Becoming a Chef has been the best decision of my life as far as the satisfaction it gives me. The ‘high’ that I experience when I come up with innovative dishes that are simple to prepare, nutritious as well as tasty, is something that I cannot easily describe in words. However I do understand that my journey has just begun and that it will be challenging moving forward, as nutrition science matures and old conventions are replaced by new findings. What keeps me going though is knowing that millions of working mothers will benefit from my efforts in making cooking simple and exciting and less of a chore.
While I have some accomplishments to my name I recognise that I have a long way to go. I remain a student and researcher in the science of culinary art who is committed to healthy food that makes eating pleasurable and fun for children. The satisfaction I experience from this work is my greatest motivation.