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Chef Sachiko Seth, who is of Tibetan origin, was born in Kalimpong in the hills of Bengal. Her mother Doma Wang (pronounced Wong) had started a home chef enterprise in Kolkata back then. Making momos at home and selling them across Salt Lake. Sachiko, whose pet name is Puchu, remembers waking up as a 4 year old to the sight of her mum and her team making momos, thukpa and chowmein in their house for orders. It was her breakfast too. When a bit older, she was given the responsibility of helping deliver the momos and later learnt how to make them. She took some time to figure out what she wanted to do in life and after school went to Chandigarh to be a tattoo artist. Which is when it struck her that she wanted to carry on her family legacy. Her grandfather was a noodle maker and Puchu had fond memories of his enterprise in Kalimpong. Sachiko returned to Kolkata and told Doma (a #Foodocracyforher alumni) that she wanted to work with her at Blue Poppy, the Sikkim House canteen in Kolkata that her mother was running. She was a bit shocked when she was told she had to wait on tables first before she worked in the kitchen and in the kitchen wash dishes first, then chop and prep ingredients before she got anywhere close to the cooking area. All of these experiences came of use when Sachiko opened  Blue Poppy Thakali, 'based on memories on the range of food I had as a kid in Kalimpong', in Kolkata after the Sikkim House canteen lease got over. The family also runs Blue Poppy Express, a delivery kitchen in Kolkata, and Blue Poppy in Gangtok. Doma di, as she is fondly known in Kolkata, remains the guiding force with the new gen taking her legacy ahead. Chef Sachio0 is painfully shy and it was a privilege to get to interview her. Do not miss out on the chance to listen to her cook. #FoodocracyForHer by Kalyan Karmakar is India's longest running podcast featuring women entrepreneurs in the food and beverage business.  Please share the episode. Please click on like as it helps the video be discovered and please do subscribe to the channel to catch future episodes of the podcast.

There was once a little girl in Mumbai who would go to school every day and fret over the three R's ... reading, writing and 'rithmetic. She was dyslexic and these shibboleths of the conventional education system just didn't talk to her. She would come home feeling frustrated, sit in the kitchen and see her mother (a Gujarati) and paternal grand-mom (an Andhra'ite) cook for the family. This was her happy place. She would see the joy that the food cooked by the two ladies would give to all at her home and then had her eureka moment, 'cooking can be my super power.'   'I want to be a chef,' she told her mother. Not that our young hero had any reference point to go by then. Her dad was a renowned musician. Her mother a scientist in pharmacalogy. Her parents did not say anything. A few days later, the little girl and her mum were travelling down Dadar in Mumbai in a cab. "See that building to our left?" asked mum to her daughter. "That is where India's top chefs come from." Fast forward a few years and our superhero, now a teen, cleared the competitive exams and walked into the hallowed portals of IHM, Mumbai, aka the 'Dadar Catering College."  'Hallowed portals' became synonymous with the story of chef Niyati Rao. She said goodbye to India's straightjacketed education when school got over. She came into her own at college and then walked down the 'hallowed portals' of Taj Mahal Mumbai, where she worked at the legendary Zodiac Grill, the Chambers and Wasabi, Mumbai, at the very start of her career.  She then spent some time at A Reverie, Goa, where she learnt what it meant to helm a kitchen and create a menu. More 'hallowed portals' followed. She worked at Noma, Copenhagen, for a while before the pandemic and a personal health crisis made her return to India. After two years of cooling her heels at home, a message from Sagar Neve, once a fellow intern at the JW Marriott, Mumbai, led to their getting together and opening Ekaa, Mumbai. Will it gain 'hallowed portals' status one day is anybody's guess. Some say Ekaa is India's best restaurant...our food media glossies do tend to go overboard at times. Others were in a hurry to say why it is not 'India's best' ...we are the original 'crab in a pot' country after all.  Chef Niyati has no time for this. As the co-founder and head chef of Ekaa, her focus is to put ingredients first. And the customer. That's all.  Oh and yes, after her Noma experience, she is hellbent to make India proud by "the time I am done with it." Sounds like the stuff of a biopic? Hold on. Niyati is just 28 (!) and has many more stories to create. For now, do listen to the podcast where for the first time ever (yay) she talks about her life and dreams as a chef. Oh, and she is a fellow cat parent and our respective cats sat by us during the interview. #FoodocracyForHer by Kalyan Karmakar is India's longest running podcast featuring women entrepreneurs in the food and beverage business.  Please share the episode. Please click on like as it helps the video be discovered and please do subscribe to the channel to catch future episodes of the podcast.

Once upon a time, there was a Marwari girl from Kolkata who grew up in a family with no food restrictions. She went to Singapore to study film making after her school finals. Cooked for her friends there. Realised that she enjoyed cooking more than she enjoyed making films. Still in her teens, she went off on a journey of self discovery by attending a cooking course. She attained enlightenment there and went to Le Cordon Bleau, London, to study. She returned to Calcutta. Interned in top hotel kitchens. Realised that everyone treated her as her papa's daughter and decided that she did not want to be pampered by her bosses! She quit to start a Latin American restaurant in Kolkata which had the city eating out of her hands. It imploded in a couple of years thanks to investor issues and she decided that independent was the way for her. She set up her own contemporary European cafe in the city of tetrazini, fish a la Diana, chicken a la kiev and managed to finally shake Calcutta out of the age of classic French sauces. Not before she faced a lot of trouble from the para uncles and mastans whom she faced head on. She then decided to come to Mumbai and Bandra west at that, land of some of the most prime real estate in the world, and opened a small Latin American Cafe. She claims to be a non-baker, but my wife orders in her keto brownie almost everyday.  I am and proud to present a global citizen from my home town, chef Urvika Kanoi of The Daily, Kolkata, and Cafe Duco, Mumbai, in the latest episode of #foodocracyforher  #FoodocracyForHer by Kalyan Karmakar is India's longest running podcast featuring women entrepreneurs in the food and beverage business.  Please share the episode. Please click on like as it helps the video be discovered and please do subscribe to the channel to catch future episodes of the podcast.

Prachi Agarwal Goel is the head chef and co-founder of Brownie Cottage, established in 2005. In the first episode of the podcast she spoke about how her summer holiday trips to Mumbai from Allahabad as a child got her interested in the world of baking. Of how she did a bakery course at the Sophia Polytechnic after her graduation at Allahabad as the love of her life and her future life partner had (and still has) 'a massive sweet tooth.' In the second and concluding part of the podcast, chef Prachi talks about starting a home baking enterprise after marriage and of then moving to Mumbai with her husband to create something of 'scale,' as that was the life goal inculcated in her during her three month internship in the bakery department of the Oberoi, Mumbai. A decision which led to the birth of the Brownie Cottage. An enterprise that has grown from strength to strength and is in its 18th year now.   #FoodocracyForHer by Kalyan Karmakar is India's longest running podcast featuring women entrepreneurs in the food and beverage business.  Please share the episode. Please click on like as it helps the video be discovered and please do subscribe to the channel to catch future episodes of the podcast.

Prachi Agarwal Goel is the head chef and co-founder of Brownie Cottage, established in 2005. Setting up a food business was never the life plan of this academic topper from Allahabad who grew up in a conservative Marwari joint family. It was her love for baking and her future husband and co-founder of Brownie Cottage, Raghav Goel's, massive sweet tooth which led her to do a course on baking at Mumbai's Sophia Polytechnic. From there she was selected to do a specialised training programme at the Oberoi, Mumbai. At the end of her three month internship, Prachi was convinced that she wanted to build a business that espoused the values that she had internalised at this Indian run world class luxury hotel group. A dream which eventually led to the birth of the Browni Cottage. Listen to Part 1 of the podcast to know more about the inspirational story of the Brownie Queen of Mumbai. #FoodocracyForHer by Kalyan Karmakar is India's longest running podcast featuring women entrepreneurs in the food and beverage business.  Please share the episode. Please click on like as it helps the video be discovered and please do subscribe to the channel to catch future episodes of the podcast.

"We didn't talk about food. I read up on my notes on the food bits for you,' exclaimed the indomitable Bachi Karkaria at the end of my interview of her on her latest book, Capture The Dream. Her biography of the late Captain C.P. Krishnan Nair, the founder of the Leela Group. Truth be told, this very readable book left me with so much food for thought that I forgot to ask Bachi about the role the Captain's mother's prawn pickle and his wife Leela's prawn curries played in shaping his rather eventful life. So WHAT did we talk about? For that you have to click and listen and at the end is a bonus, a masterclass on journalism by Bachi. This is part 1 of our chat Do click on like if you enjoyed the chat, share the episode, subscribe to the channel and above all, buy the book.  #book #bookpodcast #amwriting bachikarkaria #captainnair #leelalace #bleedingmadras #leelahotels #finetlychoppedTV #radiofinelychopped #kerala #curry #hotel #besthotels #kalyankarmakar #finelychoppedpodcasts

The story of a cat called Maharani. An outside cat. Who became an inside outside cat. And now is an inside cat named Baby Loaf, lying beside me on the bed while I type this. Things might change the moment the bell rings though as he would make a dash to run out of our apartment which has been his too for more than 2 years now. I do hope you liked this episode and do share it. #cat #catperson #catlover #radiofinelychopped #thekittykarmakars #thetailsofmylife #catpodcast #mumbaicat #adoptdontshop

The story of a cat named Mau and of how he brought a bunch of us together through his search for his forever home. While I am yet to meet him in person, Mao is special as he is the first kitten whom I helped find a house for. After opening our own home to two. All the people mentioned in the podcasts have themselves adopted community cats and feed and look after many more. #TheTailsOfMyLife is my podcast on cats and I hope you like it and share it and do rate the channel on whichever podcast app you use so that more can listen to it. I hope to make a book out of this someday. cat #catlover #catsofmumbai #catpeople #adoptdontshop #radiofinelychopped

In this episode on my podcast on the cats in my life, which will hopefully someday become a book, I tell you the story of a cat whom I named Maharani who met me in our building lobby and made me fall in love with cats. I narrated the episode while our cats Baby Loaf and little Nimki sat by me on the bed before they went off to sleep. Was it really so boring? What happened to Maharani? Tune in the listen and do subscribe to the channel and leave a comment and a review too. #cats #catperson #catpodcast #kittykarmakars #podcasts #bandra #mumbai #adoptdontshop

Hi, my name is Kalyan Karmakar. I am a food writer based in Mumbai. This is the first episode of my new podcast, ‘The tails of my life.’ A title given by my wife for a book she thinks I should write. No, it’s not about food. It’s about the cats in my life. Someone who disliked cats till November 2019 and whose word now centres around them. Do tune in as I stories from our lives together and tell you how our lives have become magical since then. Do show this some love, share with fellow cat and pet lovers and with anyone who wants to switch off from the daily grind for a bit and wants to unwind over a good yarn. #adoptdontshop #catpeople #kittykarmakars #babyloaf #littlenimki #bandra #mumbai #cat #radiofinelychopped

Pre recording. K: What should we talk of today? K: Let's talk about eggs. I had some lovely eggs for breakfast. K: So did I. You do realise that by this logic we will do a podcast on eggs every week?! K: What a lovely idea! In this episode Kurush and Kalyan speak about poached eggs and French toasts and of how Bengalis revolutionaries have 'redefined them both,' while the Parsis remained loyal to Her Majesty. Of how one must take stories told by grandmoms about the stretchability of a single egg with a pinch of salt. They talk about the Parsi 'par eedu' concept of eggs, and of how to any Bengali an egg curry where the boiled egg is not slit and and tempered in oil first is nothing worse than a CIA conspiracy. In between Kurush shares his father's mayonnaise recipe and if you wait till the end, you will hear him share his akoori recipe, but not before Kalyan talks about how deem sheddo and phyana bhaat is all about pure love. 'K&K Dig Food' is a podcast on food hosted by Dr Kurush Dalal and Kalyan Karmakar from Mumbai (and navi Mumbai). Kurush is an archeologist and food ethnographer, who is a proud son of Mumbai ,and is possibly one of the most quoted people in articles on Indian food written in recent times. He runs a series of very popular online courses on food writing and is a much sought after speaker in food events. He is married to a Bengali (not Kalyan), Rhea Mitra Dalal  and runs Katy's Kitchen with her, a Parsi catering company started by his mother the late Dr Katy Dalal. Kalyan is a sociology student and an MBA, who started his career as a qualitative market researcher where he figured out that he loves interviewing people and moderating.  Anchors he likes to model himself on swing from Dr Prannoy Roy to Cyrus Broacha! He is a food blogger, published author and likes to call himself a 'columnist' so that he can write about his breakfast and get done with work for the day! He is married to a Parsi (not Kurush), Kainaz Karmakar, who when not babysitting the three boys at home, Kalyan, Baby Loaf and Little Nimki (the last two are cats, but no one has broken this to them), works in advertising. Kalyan and Kurush bond over a shared love for food, wry humour and Valibhai. You can google the more boring parts about their lives. Now be a dear and share this, click on like and subscribe to the channel

#foodocracyforher is where I speak to women doing amazing work in the world of food. My next guest, Shormistha Mukherjee, is not in the food business. Yet. Not directly at least. Though as the co-owner of the digital agency Flying Cursor, this former legacy advertising professional has worked with clients in the food space and with creators too. She is an enthusiastic patron of home chefs and was part of the jury of the Home Cheffies 2021, India's first Home Chef Power Brand Awards. She is a former colleague of my wife and one of the earliest friends that I made through blogging and now a friend of the entire family. Her cat Tugga is big brother to our Baby Loaf and little Nimki. This interview is about none of that. A few years back, Shormistha was diagnosed as having breast cancer. She battled it and then wrote a book. 'Cancer, you picked the wrong girl.' Her mission, to alert women to the need to check for breast cancer. A stitch in time saves nine, as the adage goes. And it's never 'too early' to check, she adds. A big supporter of #foodocracyforher, Shormistha most kindly came here to spread this important message on #worldcancerday. We do hope you watch it and share it...and...once you do, you will realise that the message goes out as much to women as us men.  #FoodocracyForHer by Kalyan Karmakar is India's longest running podcast featuring women entrepreneurs in the food and beverage business.  Please share the episode. Please click on like as it helps the video be discovered and please do subscribe to the channel to catch future episodes of the podcast.

Megha Phull was born in Bhillai, grew up in Delhi and lived in various cities ranging from Glasgow to Mumbai before moving to Singapore last year. She worked in the fashion industry after completing her higher studies in the field. She took a break when her son was born 12 years back, conscious of the fact that she would like to resume her career once her son was a bit older. Resume she did, but not in fashion, it was food this time! Always a foodie, Megha had got a perspective of clean and conscious eating thanks to her dietician Charmaine D'Souza. 5 years back Megha started Zealo Foods, with an aim to offer tasty and yet healthy gifting options to people. The last 5 year has been an interesting ride and the business, which initially started with her two house help as her first employees, has grown organically. 'Focus' and 'take and work on advice' and her two success mantras. Watch this episode for more practical tips from her. Having tried some of her products, I must say that I vouch for her work. #FoodocracyForHer by Kalyan Karmakar is India's longest running podcast featuring women entrepreneurs in the food and beverage business.  Please share the episode. Please click on like as it helps the video be discovered and please do subscribe to the channel to catch future episodes of the podcast.

Find purpose and work will follow, they say. Dr Tatyana Dias, whom I interviewed for the latest episode of the #foodocracyforher podcast, is a great example of this.  Her sister, Veruschka, was born when Tatyana was 4. 4 years later the doctors diagnosed Veruschka as being autistic. From then on the lives of young Tatyana and her parents revolved around Veruschka's well being. Tatyana felt very protective towards her sister. When in high school she decided that she wanted to study and know more about how the brain works so that she could make a difference to the lives of those who were like her sister. This led her to going to Cambridge to study neuro biology and she did her Phd on the same.  Veruschka unfortunately passed away a few years back. Tatyana then decided put her scientific work on hold and opened the Veruschka Foundation, to empower the differently abled, in memory of her sister. She started the Culinaris Cookery Institute to impart culinary vocational training to her 'bacchus' (children) as she lovingly calls them. Folks who biologically adults. but mentally children. Then, realising the difficulty in placing girls with autism in mainstream kitchens, she opened A Bite Better, a sustainable food retail offering, where she could employ her female students.  This episode is longer than others in the series, but do tune in to listen to Tatyana first lovingly reminisce about life with Veruschka whereby she helps understand what autism is, and then the various steps she has taken so far in memory of her sister. It is bound to leave you inspired!  #FoodocracyForHer by Kalyan Karmakar is India's longest running podcast featuring women entrepreneurs in the food and beverage business.  Please share the episode. Please click on like as it helps the video be discovered and please do subscribe to the channel to catch future episodes of the podcast.

I am thrilled to  present Trishla Lunawat of Meal On Leaf in the latest episode of #FoodocracyForHer. Trishla is a Marwari who was born in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. She was exposed to the food of different states of south India while growing up in Coimbatore, with her father turning out to be her cooking guru. Trishla then moved to Mumbai, where she lives with her husband and son. During the first Covid 19 pandemic lockdown of 2020, she got the idea of offering home styled south Indian food in Mumbai. Somehing that she felt was lacking here. She visited her in laws in Madhya Pradesh with her family a couple of months later where on hearing her plans, her father in law became her biggest supporter and said she must work on this dream. Thus was born Meal on Leaf in October 2020, through which she offers a variety of vegetarian meals from across south India. Packed in  neat boxes, with bio-degradable packaging wherever possible and banana leaves to eat on. Do tune in to the listen to the story of this Mumbai's Coimbatore born Marwari home chef and also get a glimpse into what life in Coimbatore is all about and do try her food if you can. It's really good!   #FoodocracyForHer by Kalyan Karmakar is India's longest running podcast featuring women entrepreneurs in the food and beverage business.  Please share the episode. Please click on like as it helps the video be discovered and please do subscribe to the channel to catch future episodes of the podcast.

In this episode of their podcast, Kurush and Kalyan talk about the concept of barter and its relevance when it comes to social media marketing, they skirt away from the four letter B word in the world of Indian food which can be contentious on social media and move on to biryani, a topic that often leads to serious debates between the two of them. Each takes a swipe at the biryani from the other's home base, Kalyan on Mumbai's and Kurush on Kolkata's. They then use their childhood biryani experiences to reconstruct the social fabric of the Bombay and Calcutta of their times and use this as an example to express their points of view on what makes for engaging food writing. Oh yes, Kalyan does outrage this time too and has a strong message to non-Kolkatans claiming to reconstruct the 'Kolkata biryani' outside of Kolkata. 'K&K Dig Food' is a podcast on food hosted by Dr Kurush Dalal and Kalyan Karmakar from Mumbai (and navi Mumbai). Kurush is an archeologist and food ethnographer, who is a proud son of Mumbai ,and is possibly one of the most quoted people in articles on Indian food written in recent times. He runs a series of very popular online courses on food writing and is a much sought after speaker in food events. He is married to a Bengali (not Kalyan), Rhea Mitra Dalal  and runs Katy's Kitchen with her, a Parsi catering company started by his mother the late Dr Katy Dalal. Kalyan is a sociology student and an MBA, who started his career as a qualitative market researcher where he figured out that he loves interviewing people and moderating.  Anchors he likes to model himself on swing from Dr Prannoy Roy to Cyrus Broacha! He is a food blogger, published author and likes to call himself a 'columnist' so that he can write about his breakfast and get done with work for the day! He is married to a Parsi (not Kurush), Kainaz Karmakar, who when not babysitting the three boys at home, Kalyan, Baby Loaf and Little Nimki (the last two are cats, but no one has broken this to them), works in advertising. Kalyan and Kurush bond over a shared love for food, wry humour and Valibhai. You can google the more boring parts about their lives. Now be a dear and share this, click on like and subscribe to the channel

In this episode of their podcast, Kurush and Kalyan reminisce about the street food culture of Bombay and Calcutta (as the cities were then known) of their childhood and youth. From Kurush you will hear memories of the samosa-wala outside St Xavier's School, his first vada pav (which he remembers far more vividly than his first crush) and the secret of what went into kebabs outside Novelty Cinema. Kalyan talks about how it was the parar dokaner egg rolls which Calcutta ran on (not mutton kathi rolls), the chops and cutlets that the rolls shops offered and movie theatres in Kolkata which had bars. They reflect upon how there was a fair bit of Portugal, Spain and Great Britain in the desi street food that made them the men they are today. The episode ends with Kalyan's rant against Bengali home chefs who offer street food dishes and how they have messed it all up. How? You have to listen till the end! 'K&K Dig Food' is a podcast on food hosted by Dr Kurush Dalal and Kalyan Karmakar from Mumbai (and navi Mumbai). Kurush is an archeologist and food ethnographer, who is a proud son of Mumbai ,and is possibly one of the most quoted people in articles on Indian food written in recent times. He runs a series of very popular online courses on food writing and is a much sought after speaker in food events. He is married to a Bengali (not Kalyan), Rhea Mitra Dalal  and runs Katy's Kitchen with her, a Parsi catering company started by his mother the late Dr Katy Dalal. Kalyan is a sociology student and an MBA, who started his career as a qualitative market researcher where he figured out that he loves interviewing people and moderating.  Anchors he likes to model himself on swing from Dr Prannoy Roy to Cyrus Broacha! He is a food blogger, published author and likes to call himself a 'columnist' so that he can write about his breakfast and get done with work for the day! He is married to a Parsi (not Kurush), Kainaz Karmakar, who when not babysitting the three boys at home, Kalyan, Baby Loaf and Little Nimki (the last two are cats, but no one has broken this to them), works in advertising. Kalyan and Kurush bond over a shared love for food, wry humour and Valibhai. You can google the more boring parts about their lives. Now be a dear and share this, click on like and subscribe to the channel.

I am thrilled to drop the first #foodocracyforher episode of 2022 which features Tanvi Shah from Mumbai. She is an economics student who then studied MIS. She was always interested in cooking, but did not get a chance to do so till she went abroad to study. She came back, got married, ran a handicrafts enterprise. Life was on cruise mode till one day a question from her then 9 year old son, after visiting the langar at Amritsar, on how he could help those who are in the weaker sections of the society led to Tanvi guiding her son Vir and elder daughter Mira to start a dips making enterprise, the proceeds of which went into supporting a charity. Tanvi and her daughter then co-authored a book called 'The Millennial Kitchen' which featured their recipes. The profits from which went to supporting the Akshay Patra Society. Mira is now in college abroad, studying about sustainability in her undegrad studies, and Vir is about to finish school, making Tanvi wonder what to do with the impending empty nest syndrome in her life. Not to worry, her vision for promoting sustainability and inclusivity in food have led to her conduct a TV show for Tata sky, start a salad dressing business and teach recipes (through Instagram on @cookwithnmk for now) and lot more. Listen in to hear what Tanvi, who epitomises the spirit of moving ahead no matter what, has to say.  #FoodocracyForHer by Kalyan Karmakar is India's longest running podcast featuring women entrepreneurs in the food and beverage business.  Please share the episode. Please click on like as it helps the video be discovered and hopefully and please do subscribe to the channel to catch future episodes of the podcast. And have a great new year!

I sacrificed my afternoon nap to drop the historic pilot episode of the podcast that will change your life forever: 'K&K Dig Food,' and you have not heard it yet. Seriously? I mean, come on.... please listen to it. Pretty please. We need motivation to make the next episode! (KK)  In this episode, Dr Kurush Dalal and (son of a doctor) Kalyan Karmakar give you a peek into their bromance as they introduce each other to you at the start. Kurush then defends the drink called raspberry, an acquired taste which is hard to acquire, which Parsis seem to love. Post which, the two give you a dummy's guide to the legendary patra ni machhi of the Parsis and the more recently legendary machher patoori of the Bengalis. The episode ends with both berating Keralites for appropriating the banana leaf platter concept as their own with multiple sadya reels on Instagram.    'K&K Dig Food' is a podcast on food hosted by Dr Kurush Dalal and Kalyan Karmakar from Mumbai (and navi Mumbai).  Kurush is an archeologist and food ethnographer, who is a proud son of Mumbai ,and is possibly one of the most quoted people in articles on Indian food written in recent times. He runs a series of very popular online courses on food writing and is a much sought after speaker in food events. He is married to a Bengali (not Kalyan), Rhea Mitra Dalal  and runs Katy's Kitchen with her, a Parsi catering company started by his mother the late Dr Katy Dalal.  Kalyan is a sociology student who started his career as a qualitative market researcher where he figured out that he loves interviewing people and moderating.  Anchors he likes to model himself on swing from Dr Prannoy Roy to Cyrus Broacha! He is a food blogger, published author and likes to call himself a 'columnist' so that he can write about his breakfast and get done with work for the day! He is married to a Parsi (not Kurush), Kainaz Karmakar, who when not babysitting the three boys at home, Kalyan, Baby Loaf and Little Nimki (the last two are cats, but no one has broken this to them), works in advertising. Kalyan and Kurush bond over a shared love for food, wry humour and Valibhai. You can google the more boring parts about their lives. Now be a dear and share this, click on like and subscribe to the channel.

I am proud to present Investment banker turned independent chef entrepreneur, chef Hemal Shah in the latest episode of #FoodocracyForHer.  Hemal is a Mumbai girl, whose father is an oncologist and mother a gynaecologist. It was a given that she would be a doctor and she passed her pre-med and got into one of Mumbai's top medical colleges. She then realised that she did not want to lead the sort of life her mom led ('on call at all times') and decided to study economics instead ('that was all that was available by then to me'). Hemal then went to the US for higher studies and worked in top investment banking firms. That's when she suddenly realised that it was really the kitchen that was her calling and got a job as an unpaid intern in the sushi joint she and her colleagues used to frequent! Follow the rest of the episode to know of Hemal's move back to India and her stints at Aura in Goa and La Folie by chef Sanjana Patel in Mumbai which gave her the confidence to strike it on her own as a chef. Of how the pandemic hit just as her business was taking flight. Of how she herself got covid followed by a ligament tear just as she was coming to grips with the new reality. Listen to her tell you about how she bounced back from the dark spaces that her mind took her to. I promise you that this is just the moral booster that you needed. . #FoodocracyForHer by Kalyan Karmakar is India's longest running podcast featuring women entrepreneurs in the food and beverage business.  Please share the episode. Please click on like as it helps the video be discovered and hopefully and please do subscribe to the channel to catch future episodes of the podcast.