Beyond The Spice…
Better With Spice is a space for me to explore my love for food and cooking, sharing both new discoveries and familiar recipes from my childhood, along with helpful tips and techniques I’ve picked up along the way.
I moved to Sydney in 2016 with dreams of becoming a chef, enrolling in the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu. Working in the industry, I realised creative freedom in a professional kitchen comes with time and seniority. A lot of self discovery ensued, and now I’ve pivoted into a digital marketing role in the hospitality industry – still (thankfully) surrounded by food.
I love that I can still pursue my dream of working with food, exploring and creating recipes from the comforts and ease of my home kitchen.
My cooking style -
Growing up in New Delhi, India, my childhood was filled with daals, curries and various Indian classics, with the exception being my mum’s cooking. She grew up in the Middle East, so the food I ate growing up was an amalgamation of my grandmum’s North Indian, vegetarian style cooking and my mum’s love for ingredients like zaatar, tahini and dishes like hummus and kousa. We also travelled a lot, so my worldview extended beyond the dishes of many friends around me.
Mum likes to say I took up cooking because she was a bad cook (which is not true) but I remember discovering joy for the process itself– the smell of garlic hitting sizzling oil, cutting into an exceptionally juicy mango, rolling out dough or whisking cream by hand - instead of seeing it as something that I needed for survival.
You’ll find my cooking style is extremely intuitive - I believe it’s most important to understand your own palate before worrying about skills and techniques. Since everyone’s tastes are so personal, I encourage you to use my recipes as a gentle guide. Feel free to experiment with quantities, adding an extra dash of chilli, salt, sugar or spice, as you please.
My recipes -
A lot of my recipes are dishes I cook often in my own kitchen, which means they're fast, easy, delicious and often quite healthy with lots of fresh fruit and vegetables - celebrating what's in season.
Moving to Sydney as an 18-year-old with no family around (and no restaurants that could properly recreate home style food) meant I had to learn many of the dishes from my childhood - comfort food in its true form. This is where my relationship with spice stems from too. As a student, spices were a cheap and easy way to bolster flavours. Having grown up eating spice and learning about its benefits, it's second nature for me to reach for the spice cabinet for every recipe.
That being said, not all my recipes have complicated spice blends. There are also easy breakfasts, sides, dips, and snacks that you can whip up in no time when you're craving a little treat.
Follow me on Instagram to see my life in Sydney, travels, new restaurants and upcoming recipes I’m working on, or connect with me below.
