Story of Healthy Meals Factory
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Home cooking in Indian kitchen
I have grown up in middle class Indian family where cooking and eating home-cooked meal is a daily ritual - done 2 to 3 times a day! My mother, my grandmother and my aunts in the family – everyone cooked on a daily basis. So common were home cooked meals that I never felt the need to note down recipes because I learnt them while giving a helping hand in the kitchen to my mother and aunts.
After marriage, as a working woman raising a growing family in metropolitan city of Mumbai, it became necessary for me to create quick and easy yet delicious and healthy recipes to nourish my family just the way I was by the women in my family. Based on what I had already learnt, I got creative and enjoyed experimenting smart ways of cooking nutritious and delicious recipes. My experiments were deemed successful only when they passed the taste buds of my fussy family! Ever since, cooking has become my passion.
After marriage, as a working woman raising a growing family in metropolitan city of Mumbai, it became necessary for me to create quick and easy yet delicious and healthy recipes to nourish my family just the way I was by the women in my family. Based on what I had already learnt, I got creative and enjoyed experimenting smart ways of cooking nutritious and delicious recipes. My experiments were deemed successful only when they passed the taste buds of my fussy family! Ever since, cooking has become my passion.
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After I moved to Australia, I loved the variety of multi-cultural cuisine that is widely available in food courts and restaurants. Inspired by them, I started incorporating recipes from other cultures and adding them to my kitchen menus.
About 8 years ago, I had an opportunity to live on a University campus while pursuing my doctoral degree. To help me connect with the young undergraduate students who lived in the neighbouring rooms of my Hall, one day I invited them to join me in my cooking, in the kitchen that we all shared. I was amazed and struck how quickly and naturally cooking broke the ice between me and the students whom I did not know. And I also later learnt that groups of students who had never interacted with each other even though they had been living there for over a year, had connected for the first time over that cook-up session.
I was also delighted to see how much the students enjoyed the chopping and preparing as they helped me with the cooking process. And when the kitchen began filling with the aroma of herbs and spices that I was using, everyone was hooked on to the cook-up session. And they wanted a repeat of the fun once every week, as opposed to my proposal of once a month! And that hooked me on to holding cook-up sessions with my friends and with people who are waiting to be my friends J !
About 8 years ago, I had an opportunity to live on a University campus while pursuing my doctoral degree. To help me connect with the young undergraduate students who lived in the neighbouring rooms of my Hall, one day I invited them to join me in my cooking, in the kitchen that we all shared. I was amazed and struck how quickly and naturally cooking broke the ice between me and the students whom I did not know. And I also later learnt that groups of students who had never interacted with each other even though they had been living there for over a year, had connected for the first time over that cook-up session.
I was also delighted to see how much the students enjoyed the chopping and preparing as they helped me with the cooking process. And when the kitchen began filling with the aroma of herbs and spices that I was using, everyone was hooked on to the cook-up session. And they wanted a repeat of the fun once every week, as opposed to my proposal of once a month! And that hooked me on to holding cook-up sessions with my friends and with people who are waiting to be my friends J !
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Since then, I found a way to connect my passion for cooking, with my passion for helping the rural communities around the world. I started holding cook-up sessions for my friends and colleagues at work. And every single time, it is as delightful as it was the first cook-up with the students on the campus.
Through numerous cooking sessions I have held on the University campus, in my friend’s backyards and in public parks I was able to share how cooking delicious and healthy meals can be simple and can be done without a fuss.
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More recently, as kids are entering adulthood and beginning to lead independent lives, I felt the need to pass on to them all that I know about healthy cooking so that they can continue to lead a healthy lifestyle.
As I started reflecting upon the things I need to share with kids about healthy cooking, I knew that simply giving them my recipes would not be enough. I felt that I need to teach them the system that I had developed over the years using which I have been able to whip up home cooked meals day after day, week after week and month after month – without getting worn out – on the contrary, enjoying every moment of the cooking and sharing process.
As I started reflecting upon the things I need to share with kids about healthy cooking, I knew that simply giving them my recipes would not be enough. I felt that I need to teach them the system that I had developed over the years using which I have been able to whip up home cooked meals day after day, week after week and month after month – without getting worn out – on the contrary, enjoying every moment of the cooking and sharing process.