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From making bread with discarded grains, using local ingredients, to a zero-waste kitchen! These amazing Indian female chefs are changing the world, one dish at a time!
It is important to not just admire the steps taken by these Indian female chefs, but to also be inspired into action. Indian food allows the flexibility and space for us to be sustainable. So pull up a pan. Take a taste and join these wonderful women. Life is after all so endlessly delicious when you cook towards a better future!
Spearheads of the ‘Green Food Movement’, these 5 Indian female chefs are making waves. They are changing the stereotyped impression of Indian cuisine. Not just that, they are doing it sustainably! This is the perfect example of ‘eco-feminism’ (a branch of feminism that talks about how the treatment of nature and women are connected).
Meet the 5 talented Indian female chefs who are trailblazers in sustainable & mindful cooking:
Vanshika Bhatia is a name to be reckoned with in the culinary circuit. She is very aware of the importance of using local and seasonal produce. She also aims towards reducing her kitchen waste as much as possible by changing her consumption style. She has also made changes to her menu to ensure the path towards sustainability & zero waste. For example, in her recent quest she has been aiming to make bread from the discarded grains in a distillery.
“It is important for chefs to be more responsible in our kitchens,” Bhatia has been quoted as saying. “I may not be able to force other chefs to do that, but I can control my practices and hope to make a difference.”
To get freshly grown and organic food to her guests, this chef is ready to sacrifice parts of her profit. She says she does not mind as the clean and sustainable food is more important and is also appreciated by her guests.
Radhika is the owner and conceptualist of ‘Fig and Maple’, a sustainable restaurant in Delhi. She believes in utilizing produce from root to shoot and ensures minimal waste. She has taken up this onerous task hoping to move towards greener kitchen practices.
She also aims to bring to the table local and healthy produce. Her food allows people to enjoy local and common food in innovative ways. She has been quoted assaying, “I have constantly worked to ensure that India’s incredible biodiversity is championed through my menu.”
Her restaurant promises to ‘practice sustainability and seasonal cooking’, by using ‘sustainably sourced local produce’. They strive for a zero waste kitchen and come up with creative ideas to do this. Her efforts are continuously appreciated by a loyal customer base thus popularizing green kitchens among the public.
Garima is the first female chef of India to ever receive a Michelin Star. She has also been named as Asia’s best female chef in 2019. This talented chef has started an initiative called ‘Food Forward India’.
Indian produce is usually seen as inferior to internationally sourced products. Garima wants to take this myth away and allow people to recognize the importance and highlight the uniqueness of Indian food.
She is using her voice to highlight the lesser-known indigenous food sources. The organization curates virtual and physical events to highlight the unknown dishes and produce of India.
In her own restaurant GAA, situated in Bangkok, she makes Indian cuisine but with locally sourced food which is more sustainable and causes less carbon footprint.
She has truly taken authentic Indian cuisine and transported it across the globe. Lulu runs a tribal kitchen in Belgium where she puts Naga dishes on the table for people to savour. She hails from Neikanlong, Manipur. She has has not only brought the indigenous tastes of North East India to Belgium but also done it in a food truck!
Lulu has managed to break away from the clichéd image of Indian food and shown the diversity of Indian food. She has a food truck named ‘Lulu’s Tribal Kitchen’, the perfect place to experience Indian food outside the usual stereotypical dishes. This food truck has managed to break ceilings and boxes and Lulu is the maestro behind it!
Megha Kohli is a name that deserves to be mentioned while talking about Indian female chefs. Her career has been bedazzled with achievements since a very young age.
She had joined the Oberoi group of hotels for training right after she graduated school. She was selected for the prestigious kitchen training program at Oberoi in Delhi and later went on to be selected to assist the Michelin Star Chef Nobert Niederkofler. She is also an active member of a non-profit called “Chefs Manifesto” which works towards sustainable food production.
This organization pledges to make food more accessible and sustainable. It also aims to inculcate sustainable cooking in not just households but in the food industry as well.
Let’s get inspired by these amazing and talented Indian female chefs, that are bringing in sustainable practices in the food industry.
We can start with using only local ingredients, cooking what’s in season, and aiming for less waste in our kitchens! With Indian food, there is more flexibility to be sustainable. Just minutely tweaking our food habits can make a significant difference!
Image source: Instagram
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Neena was the sole caregiver of Amma and though one would think that Amma was dependent on her, Neena felt otherwise.
Neena inhaled the aroma that emanated from the pan and took a deep breath. The aroma of cumin interspersed with butter transported her back to the modest kitchen in her native village. She could picture her father standing in the kitchen wearing his white crisp kurta as he made delectable concoctions for his only daughter.
Neena grew up in a home where both her parents worked together in tandem to keep the house up and running. She had a blissful childhood in her modest two-room house. The house was small but every nook and cranny gave her memories of a lifetime. Neena’s young heart imagined that her life would follow the same cheerful course. But how wrong she was!
When she was sixteen, the catastrophic clutches of destiny snatched away her parents. They passed away in a road accident and Neena was devastated. Relatives thronged her now gloomy house and soon it was decided that she should be married off.
Menopause is a reality in women's lives, so Indian workplaces need to gear up and address women's menopausal needs.
Picture this: A seasoned executive at the peak of her career suddenly grapples with hot flashes and sleep disturbances during important meetings. She also battles mood swings and cognitive changes, affecting her productivity and confidence. Eventually, she resigns from her job.
Fiction? Not really. The scenario above is a reality many women face as they navigate menopause while meeting their work responsibilities.
Menopause is the time when a woman stops menstruating. This natural condition marks the end of a woman’s reproductive years. The transition brings unique physical, emotional, and psychological changes for women.
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