Home Is Where the Home Chef Is

If you’ve ever been invited into an Indian kitchen, you’ll know it’s not just a space for cooking. For all of us who’d like to claim ourselves as heirs apparent to the throne of foodies, this is where the love potion for food was first concocted. It’s also where culinary secrets continue to be shared, family recipes are passed on from one generation to the next, and the occasional tea spills! For decades, our grandmas, mums, wives, sisters, and daughters have been at the heart of this space – yet often behind the scenes. But now, increasingly, many of them are stepping forward and connecting with the world through food. Thank you, social media!

However, this is not entirely new. Food has long been a medium through which women in our country have made their mark. Lijjat Papad began in 1959 with seven women rolling papads on a Mumbai rooftop. Today, it employs tens of thousands. Or Amul, where women dairy farmers became stakeholders and decision-makers in what would become one of the world’s largest dairy cooperatives. These were the kinds of peaceful revolutions that might well have, in their own way, proven Malcolm X wrong.

What’s unfolding today has a slightly different brio but is similar in essence. Home chefs are finding their own way in – not through restaurants or commercial kitchens or cooperatives, but through travel. They’re welcoming guests, organizing cooking sessions, and hosting meals. And in the process, they’re rewriting the idea of what a chef can be, and where that kitchen might be.

Chef de Cuisine Sans the Brigade

Across India, home chefs are offering something no restaurant can match: a front-row seat to the action. You may learn how to roll chapatis from someone who’s done it every day for years, know why mustard oil matters in a Bengali kitchen, or observe how someone from Kerala uses coconut at every stage of a meal. In Rajasthan, it might be about the technique of slowly simmering a curry over an outdoor fire. In a Mumbai apartment, it could be the distinctive balance required to cook sweet and tangy fish wrapped and steamed in banana leaves. A Tamil home might reveal how different lentils are matched with specific tempering styles.

They may not offer fancy plating or Michelin-starred chefs, but they do not operate sub rosa either. They take you behind the scenes, and these magicians might even share their secrets. There’s an enigma, yes, but there’s also elucidation. Therein lies the encanto – a culinary experience that’s not about exquisite cuisine but about the simple joys of cooking together and sharing a meal.

What’s Cooking, Really?

The idea of the woman in the kitchen has long been framed as static, domestic, even limiting. But it’s in that same space that home chefs are building a niche for themselves. They are revaluing the space, creating possibilities, and in the process, showing that when it comes to experiencing India, a home is perhaps one of the best ways to do so. What’s commendable is that many of them do not come from backgrounds in hospitality, and rarely do a few have culinary degrees.

What they do have is traditional knowledge and a willingness to share.

The act of cooking with a stranger, of explaining the how and the why of a dish, is both empowering and validating. It’s a chance to see one’s own culture through someone else’s eyes. And for many, it becomes a way to connect more deeply with the world. Hosting someone from a different country, hearing their stories, and sharing the details of one’s own food traditions often leads to moments of genuine exchange.

There’s warmth and immediacy to these encounters, and the learning is mutual. While you leave with recipes and memories, your hosts gain confidence, income, and a renewed sense of value in their everyday skills.

May the Food Be with You

The beauty of travel, no matter how clichéd it might sound, is that it lets you understand a culture. You meet locals, you glimpse into their traditions, you create memories that stay with you. Your interaction with home chefs can be a great part of those stories. They bring in the kind of experiences that don’t come from a guidebook. Rather, the kind that returns home with you in the form of a spice blend, a scribbled recipe, or a story that starts with,

“There was this woman in Jaipur who taught me how to cook daal bati…”

That’s a great one to tell your grandkids!