Hi! We’re Tina & Niki – two sisters who finally decided it was time to learn how to make the Indian food we grew up eating. And… share our mom’s delicious recipes (and our experiences) with you!

We grew up eating tasty homemade Gujarati food almost every single day. You would think that we picked up the skills needed to cook the traditional dishes our family knows and loves. Nope. As an active teenager, Tina had better things to do than spend time in the kitchen…In fact, her love of cooking blossomed later in life, after graduating with a nutrition degree and moving to New York. Niki, on the other hand, is super observant and picked up on little bits of cooking as a teenager. But recently, with aging grandparents in the house, she’s been pitching in and learning the tools of the trade by jumping right in with meal prep.

Together, we finally decided it was time to learn for real and share our journey with the world. As adults we are seeing the importance of carrying on our culture and traditions and food is a delightful way to do just that.

We are first generation American. And although our ancestry is Indian (Gujarati, to be more exact), most of my family immigrated from Africa. Just before Tina was born, our grandparents came from South Africa to help raise her. Our grandma (Ba) is an INCREDIBLE cook. She had to be…our grandfather (Dada) lives for delicious, homemade Gujarati food. Back in their day, after having an arranged marriage at the ripe age of 16, Ba learned how to cook from her sister-in-law. She was basically trained to cook in order to please Dada’s very refined palate. Growing up, we got to reap the benefits as well.

But, there wasn’t just one amazing cook in the house, but TWO. Our mom’s cooking is the BEST. We know everyone says that about their mom, but we’re serious…she knows her way around a kitchen and we pester her about opening up a restaurant all the time. Knowing that would be wayyyy too much work, she has refused over and over again. Though, convincing her to let us start this website is definitely a step in the right direction.

Our mom (Nayana) was born in Zambia, but spent most of her childhood in India with her aunt and uncle. That’s where she started learning how to cook. Her aunt (Mami) was way ahead of her time and prepared food in a much healthier way than what was traditional. She paid attention to portion sizes and limited desserts and sweets (much to our mom’s dismay at the time). And when our mom came to the United States for college, she expanded her cooking skills even more by helping her mom in the kitchen, often cooking large amounts of food for the guests coming in and out of the house almost every weekend (they lived in California – right between San Francisco and Los Angeles, so their house was a convenient pit stop along the way for family, family friends, and so-and-so-who’s-related-to-so-and-so). And then when she married our dad, her cooking transformed again to be more in line with what he grew up with. So, Ba taught her a trick or two as well.

Basically, Ba and Nayana have both been cooking Indian food for a REALLY long time. They are fast and efficient in the kitchen and have their recipes down pat (in their heads!). They’ve learned from practice and more practice, making dishes over and over again, tweaking and changing recipes along the way.

So, us daughters started this site in hopes of learning from our mom and Ba, so we can share their skills and our culture with the world. We hope you enjoy!