“This is so delicious.” These were Latha’s father’s first words when he ate the first meal cooked by his 9-year-old daughter. That was all the motivation she needed and today Latha K. is Kerala’s first female chef.

She grew up watching her mother and grandmother cook delicious meals “not just with fresh ingredients, but with love.” She strictly sticks to her principal that ‘if you are not in a good mood, don’t cook.’ She is chef de cuisine at Malabar Café, one of the restaurants under The Grand Hyatt Bolgatty in Kochi. Though the journey to where she is today wasn’t easy, she never lost her spirit.

Years ago the Food Craft Institute in Kozhikode was hesitant to allow her to join the institute because of her gender but she was relentless in her pursuit and finally became the first female student at the institute.

But the problems were not over as when, as part of the one-year course, she was supposed to do an internship in a hotel but unlike her classmates, 27 boys, she was unable to find a job. “No hotel in Calicut was willing to take me as an intern,” said Latha. ‘“This is not a job for women. We don’t take women,’ they would say.” But she refused to bow down and contacted a friend in Chennai, where she stayed for the next few months, completing her internship at a three-star hotel called Royal Mirage. There was no turning back after this.

She started a catering business in Calicut and a small restaurant called Kairali. She then worked as a chef at Saj Lucia in Trivandrum and later at Saj Earth Resort in Kochi.

In 2005, Saj Group of hotels brought a group of female chefs from Thailand and started a restaurant called Sukho Thai in Kochi. Under these women, Latha trained for a year, and became the Speciality Chef there when they left.

Even though she has mastered many different cuisines, her interest in traditional food cultures continues. She writes one new recipe a day and has more than 3,000 original recipes in her repository. In fact, she gave around 350 recipes, based on her grandmother’s recipes, to The Grand Hyatt.

While one can, undoubtedly, call her the queen of making recipes, when it comes to making the food she insists on no additives or food colors. “The processes might be tedious, but it’s healthy and authentic,” she said.

H/T: The Hindu