
"India was not my
natural place. I am not a backpacker.
I never entertained
fantasies of traveling in the East.
I did not practice
yoga. I was not looking for a guru.
I simply wished to
spend some time with myself, and
India seemed right. I
set out for one month, but India,
as India is wont, had
a different plan. I arrived in the
small city of
Tiruvanamalai which sits at the foot of
a holy mountain, and
there I met a very, very English
man who dreamed of
opening a restaurant. I fell in love
with this man and
with his dream, with the place and
with its people, and
I began to cook.
My kitchen migrates
between the Middle East and India,
particularly Tamil
Nadu, where I have lived since 2000.
For me food is, first
and foremost a connection - something
we share, we speak
of, we tell stories about. Cooking is an
adventure, a journey
in new areas of taste, and a longing
for something that we
cannot always explain.
Sometimes food allows
us to express on a plate what
we cannot put into
words."