About

Why this Blog was started?

Being someone who cooks regularly, I am online a lot looking to try out different cuisines and new recipes, which is why I realized that there was no definitive site or blog on the web dedicated to authentic home cooked Gujarati food.

Now, I am all for mixing cuisines and trying out new ways of cooking old dishes. But, I also believe that the traditional techniques sometimes yield the best flavor, which can and often does get lost with too many variations. The authenticity is gone…forever. 

So this is my attempt to record those authentic recipes and bring them to you, the way they have been cooked for generations by Gujarati families. You will find many dishes here that are not to be found commercially in restaurants, but are nonetheless delicious, nutritious and are really easy to cook. 

I dedicate this blog to my mother, my mother-in-law, both my grandmothers, and all the women of my family that have adhered to these cooking traditions religiously and have ultimately passed on these techniques and recipes to me.


 About the Blogger
 
Hi! I am Chaitali Shah and this is my blog. Originally from a small town near Surat, Gujarat, I currently live in Pune with my husband, one-year-old daughter, and a four-year-old German Shepherd. All three have been instrumental in my decision to upgrade my cooking skills.

My entire family, even extended, consists almost entirely of Gujaratis. As a people, we are notorious for being adventurous foodies and for our tendency to associate everything, be it festivals, seasons or occasions, with a unique food item. Not surprisingly, we have a lot customs and traditions associated with food, dating hundreds of years, most of which are diligently followed by my family, both immediate and extended, to this date.
 
Though I have a number of interests apart from cooking - reading and belly dancing among them - I intend to spend most of this year playing with my daughter whenever I am not working on this blog.


About the Photographer

Apart from being a photographer, Sangram Pardeshi is a big foodie. He loves trying out new cuisines, scouts the city every weekend for new places to eat and is eternally on a quest for the perfect Long Island Iced Tea. He would shamelessly invite himself over for dinner whenever you are cooking his favorite dishes. And there is always room for dessert.

Photography or as he puts it, "capturing light in moments", is his passion, and he would go to any extent to get a few pictures of a good dish, before finishing it off.

Check out more of his amazing work on http://snehaphotographica.com/