Tasting nostalgia with a twist

CHENNAI: Hot rice tempered with ghee, mashed yellow dal, and topped with hot rasam. My grandmother used to mix the recipe with her hand and feed me every morning before I headed to school. I can still remember the aroma of the ghee and the flavourful rasam!” reminisces Uma Raghuraman, social media’s favourite ‘Masterchef mom’. The award-winning food blogger and chef recently launched her debut book — My Genius Lunch Box — offering her followers and fellow cooking enthusiasts 50 lip-smacking lunchbox ideas that she vouches kids will love.  

“Thanks to the numerous eateries and social media, children are now exposed to global cuisines as a result of which they get easily bored with traditional recipes. I wanted to bring out the best of many popular Indian recipes and ingredients, give it a global twist,  and make it easy for the parent to prepare,” shares Uma, who’s been blogging for the last six years.

Ingenious creations

From the Guacamole Chutney Sandwich, Iyengar Bakery-Style Frankie to the Bullseye Paniyaram — Uma’s recipes are ingenious variations of popular dishes from the Indian cuisine we have grown up eating, but customised to today’s evolving tastes. “Some of these dishes were my children’s favourites and have never been shared on social media, while many others were exclusively curated for the book. Making the lunchbox experience exciting for children was something I always believed in and practised daily during my children’s school days. When this opportunity to write a book on lunchbox recipes came up, I lapped it up,” she shares.

It took almost 15 months for Uma’s well-thought-out recipes to translate into a book. “While it was challenging, I enjoyed every bit of it. Smit Zaveri, editor of Penguin Random House was incredibly supportive and encouraging at every step. They believed in me and that belief helped bring out the best in me,” she says.  The book is also interspersed with photographs of aesthetically presented food, plated and photographed by the blogger. “I’ve always been fascinated by photography. To improve my skills, I’ve attended workshops and researched a lot about it. Over the years, this has helped me create a plating and photography style for myself. During the making of the book, I put everything that I’d learned to use. Each picture in the book has been handpicked from thousands of photographs I shot for this project,” shares the debut author.

Box of memories

While the chef has about 100-odd original recipes up her sleeve, she is quick to say that there is “nothing absolutely original about any recipe in the world. Every recipe is an inspiration from another that you love, especially something that reminds you of people and the memories you cherish.”
For Uma, food is evocative. It can remind us of those who love us unconditionally and childhood mealtimes too, she tells us. “I vividly remember the food being served on fresh banana leaves from our backyard. Food can make many an occasion memorable — be it your marriage or the anniversary lunch 20 years later!” says the award-winning blogger.

Uma urges families to create a repository specific to their family as it’s important to pass down heirloom recipes. “Heirloom recipes are what connects the brothers, sisters and cousins living in different parts of the world. Food blurs the distances. When I talk to my son, who is in the USA, and he tells me that he made onion sambar, aloo curry and rice for dinner, I feel good and happy. It’s important to pass down recipes from generation to generation. It’s as important as writing a will and inheriting property,” she says. Uma is keen to pass on the family recipe of vathal kuzhambu to her children. “It goes well with rice and you can store and use for a few days too. It is one of the favourites in our house!” she shares.
As a creative in the food industry, doling out fresh content day in and out can be exhaustive. Uma agrees. “There are times when I have taken a three-odd-week break from posting a single food picture on my Insta feed. Similarly, there have been times when I have not added recipes to my blog for a month. However, as always, you come out of your break refreshed and more active than before. My support system has been my family,” she shares.

Teach ‘em young

Apart from whipping up interesting dishes for their children, parents, Uma says, should also introduce cooking to them from a young age. This would mean inculcating a life-skill without tainting it with any gender bias. “We should encourage children, both boys and girls, to learn cooking. Especially for children who are 14 years and above. It’s a life skill and will help them when they move out. They needn’t depend on outside food,” shares Uma.

During the lockdown, Uma has been helping her followers make humble yet healthy dishes from scratch and taking the goodness of home cooking to households across the globe. “I started a YouTube channel in 2019 showcasing many simple, tasty and healthy recipes. This initiative received a big boost during the lockdown because cooking at home increased dramatically. So I got to cook more and shared more recipe videos. The positive outcome of this lockdown is that many of us are now eating healthy home-cooked food while trying out different recipes,” she shares.

Uma dreams of compiling unique food preparation methods of different families. “I am doing some research on it now. We should not allow these recipes to fade away. Hopefully, someday I will be able to give shape to this project,” she says. We’ll have to wait for this one!

Book available on Amazon.in

For details visit Facebook/Insta page @masterchefmom