When it comes to authenticity and consistency of flavours, home cooking it is! This has been the popular sentiment for a majority of people from the past generation. However, mother’s cooking remained at home; and, as a result of persistent nostalgia, countless new ideas rolled out of commercial kitchens. People tried and argued about recreating mother’s taste in restaurants; stories were told to convince people with a craving for—and wonderful memories of—dishes from home.
We don’t have too many women chefs anywhere in the world; there are definite reasons why they don’t choose this profession. Besides, people have come to terms with new food styles and nobody expects ‘home’ as the benchmark anymore. Even so, the industry is wide open for young girls to come prove their talent and make a fortune, as many people have done in the past. One thing comes to mind: cooking and taste-making come naturally and effortlessly to women, and many people still believe men have to foster it as part of a job.
Parween Warsi was among the notable names who made great success in the 1980s. Starting small by making finger snacks at home, she had set up one of the largest food businesses in England and supplied frozen snacks like samosas to many supermarket chains. Some more names followed, as Indian food industry cemented its presence in the market and consolidated comfortably at the top.
Meeting Baby Seelan at the south Indian hub of East End brought a fresh hope for home cooking in London. Baby makes fantastic Kerala food from home and supplies to local community functions and to her regular customers. Just like the famous Italian chef Rose Gray, Baby started a cooking career in her late 50s, after her husband’s death a few years ago and retiring as a nursery nurse. Munching her delicious, fluffy unniappam (sweet snack made with jaggery and ghee) and listening to her recipes, one could easily make out her efforts and commitment to source best ingredients for making quality food.
Running around with great energy and self-motivation, during her intervals from cooking for big parties, Baby auspiciously makes flower garlands for her favourite temple at East Ham—the voluntary work has been going on for the past 25 years. She believes that all her social work keeps her happy and helps her food taste better. In addition to her traditional feast menu, she thinks regular customers prefer her lamb curry along with many other sublime flavours she creates.
Baby’s warm approach and readiness to take up challenges won her friends and inspired many others. Women chefs like her come at the right time, when people across the world are wary of the factory-made, supermarket foods. A competitive home cooking environment can only help people develop recognise taste and eat less junk food, especially when priority of people like Baby is quality, as opposed to money-making.
In a world where we learn more about women entrepreneurs and their power—as you see them spring up from many corners—there’s a long way to go to make every woman realise and seriously in her natural potential in a very demanding modern society. Many women have ideas and profound imagination, but sometimes lack support from their families to achieve their dreams and make a mark in this world. Baby runs her small food business to keep herself active; she believes that a purpose makes her a better human being. It helps her overcome solitude and thoughts on aging. Considering the amount of talent that exists, success is limited to rare individuals with strong minds. In fact, they could lead the way for millions of women who need help. The author runs the London-based Rasa chain of restaurants