BENGALURU: Born to a family having a renowned journalist-author like TJS George and an accomplished poet-writer like Jeet Thayil, debutante author Tia Anasuya confesses it was intimidating to enter the literary world. Nevertheless, she marched on, and the result is Adukkala: A Family Food Odyssey. “I took on the challenge despite knowing I will be compared to my grandfather, TJS George, and uncle, Jeet Thayil. But I’d rather try and possibly fail than never try,” she says.
However, Adukkala: A Family Food Odyssey is not about any of them. It is about the women in her household, especially her grandmother Ammu George, who has always been the driving force. “It’s incredible the way amama handled her children. For example, everyone knows my uncle as a renowned author today, but raising him was no joke. As a child, he was a lot to handle, and I asked my grandma how she managed that. But she was just like ‘In those days, you didn’t even think about it. It was a given’,” she says, adding, “My grandmom has been the most underrated person in our family, and yet, she is the backbone. She made us who we are today.”
There are about 15 women from her family, who are mentioned in the book. “It was a curated group because in my family, you have distinctive women. There is somebody who chose to become a Buddhist monk, someone who is making Kerala cuisine popular in Boston...it’s all over the map,” she smiles, adding that her mother Sheba Thayil edited the book.
But why food? Being a chef and currently a home caterer who goes by the name of Askew (@askew.blr on Instagram), Tia says food is her love language. But it was not until the lockdown that she discovered the beauty of Kerala cuisine.
“This idea came to me during Covid times. Basically, my grandmother had a really bad fall during the pandemic. So, we took the first flight out to Coimbatore and then got stuck there due to lockdown. Since I was the only cook in the family, I started making the daily meals,” says Tia.
Despite being an alumna of the prestigious culinary school Le Cordon Bleu, Paris, Tia mentions she learnt so much more in those lockdown days than she ever did as a professional chef. “There are certain tips and tricks that only home cooks and housewives know. I wanted to give them their deserving credit because everybody talks about professional chefs or a fancy Michelin-star restaurant, but very few even notice the amount of work that goes into the everyday meals in a home,” emphasises Tia.
As a tribute, she gifted the first copy of the book to her grandmother, and said, ‘This is as much yours, as it is mine’. “And that’s the copy my granddad, who is a difficult man to please, saw. He looked at it, and said, ‘Wow, good work man. Surprisingly, impressed!’,” Tia signs off with a smile.