About
A bit about me
Hi, I am Anjali. A lawyer who gave up law to pursue her one true love, food. I was born and raised in Trivandrum in arguably one of the most beautiful corners of the world, Kerala (the southernmost state of India). I have now made a home in Paris with the love of my life. If I had to pick two things that made me the happiest, I would pick cooking and meeting new people. To me nothing trumps the joy of getting to know new people, learning about them, listening to their stories and sharing snippets of our lives with each other. And if I get to feed them, even better.
This is exactly why I do, what I do.
My journey
Although I am originally from Kerala, I have been lucky enough to spend a fair share of my time in many other parts of the country. I have been lucky enough to meet many wonderful cooks from all over the country who have been generous enough to teach me the nuances of regional Indian cuisine. This coupled with the fact that I come from a family of utterly brilliant home chefs, my recipes are either pebbles I have picked up in my culinary journey or gems that have been polished and passed on for generations in my family. I started my journey in food with a little blog “My Digital Verandah’ where I published a bunch of easy Indian recipes to break down the idea that Indian food was complicated and something that was synonymous to ‘curry.’ Spice Verandah was born a few years after.
What is Spice Verandah?
Spice Verandah is the real life counterpart of My Digital Verandah. The part where I take you on a region wise culinary journey through the absolutely diverse terrain of my country. And Spice Verandah is all about breaking down all misconceptions you may have about the Indian culinary art; about making sure every region in India is represented on a global level without restricting the realm of this ancient cuisine to just the Naan and the Butter Chicken. Food at the Spice Verandah is real home cooked food. It is not “europeanized”, my recipes are not tampered with to sell faster. The idea is to take you through a multitude of fail proof recipes, to take you through flavours and ingredients and techniques that are not spoken about quite enough. The idea is to equip you to recreate authentic Indian cuisine in the comfort of your own kitchens. I have always believed that food is the one thing that allows you to travel the world without really moving. And Spice Verandah aims to give you a peek into the rich and vibrant heritage of India while staying in the City of Love, Paris.
