The Gastronomists:

Our second home chef is also unique in her own way. Gayatri’s first love was always cooking. Cooking was therapeutic for her even in the pre-Covid period. Its just that the Covid Lockdown created time, which allowed her to focus on her passion. What makes Gayatris story special is the connect she has with food. Gayatri was given her cooking lessons early in her childhood by her Dad. Her Dad loved to cook and he managed to pass that love to his daughter. As a child whenever Gayatri used to travel, they used to stay with close relatives and friends, instead of living in hotels. And when they did so, they cooked for the family and also learnt their cuisine. So cooking and nostalgic anecdotes and memories were getting blended in her mind. So for each recipe, Gayatri has a memory, an anecdote or a nostalgic experience attached to it.

Even something as tragic as her fathers death had a cooking memory attached to it. Her father died while cooking itself and had a large cooking spoon in his hand at the time of his death. So, for Gayatri, cooking during Covid was connecting with memories – of her Dad, of travel, of her childhood. So, during Covid, instead of just cooking she started posting her cooking pictures on Instagram and Facebook. And it wasn’t just the pictures but also the story attached to that dish alongwith the recipe. The best part about her Instagram posts is how tastefully the pictures are edited, the journey of the recipe – from prepping to the final garnishing and yes, the anecdotal memories associated with it. Gayatri doesnt use a computer, nor a laptop and does all her social media posts on the phone alone. She isn’t very social media savvy, isnt great with using hashtags either. She thought podcasts are a software !   But its the sheer soul in her posts that started getting the love. After following her on Instagram for sometime, friends were no longer happy just feasting their eyes on the platform. They wanted the actual feast. And it finally happened on Onam, where a family, who originally hailed from Kerala, and who had been feasting on Sadya meals for decades in Mumbai,  requested her if she could take an order for a traditional Onam Sadya meal. And indeed Gayatri was ready for it. So an elborate Onam Sadya spread became her first order. Next day she gets a call from the family, stating that the food took them down the memory lane 50 years past ! It was that authentic. And that’s when the home chef decided to go pro. Now she regularly gets weekend orders from friends. She specialises in authentic south indian vegetarian food. The menu is put out at the beginning of the week and those who want to order, have 2-3 days to place the order. She doesn’t yet have a delivery service. She delivers in her own car or sometimes through some regular OLA / UBER friendly drivers. She takes the pain to sanitize the OLA/UBER before the food sits in the car. Gayatri stops not at just feeding humans but regularly cooks and feeds 16-18 dogs in the neighbourhood as well. Her daily morning routine from 430 am to 630 am is to feed dogs rice and pedigree that she prepares the previous night. Covid helped Gayatri connect to her childhood memories through food. The best part about Gayatri is that she always believed in sharing recipes in her posts so that those follow the recipes add them to their bank of memories. As another chef taught her – You won’t take these recipes to the grave.

Discover Gayatri’s magical culinary journey on Facebook and Instagram.