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Same recipe. Same ingredients. Different hands. Somehow, never the same taste. Tomato Saaru (Rasam) I grew up eating saaru made by four very different women. My grandmother. My mother. Lalita Atte. Shobha Atte. My grandmother was particular about everything. She wouldn't just put fresh coriander on top because it looked nice. The fragrance had to actually complete the dish. That was the level of perfection she cooked with. Lalita Atte is brilliant at substitutions. She can lo

Maybe our grandmothers knew something our science is only beginning to look at. There is something very satisfying about a banana leaf meal. The leaf is fresh, green. The food is hot. You sit down, look at the spread in front of you, happy to feast on the meal. I grew up seeing banana leaves at festivals, family meals and special occasions in Bangalore. Nobody explained the science of it to me. It was simply how a good meal was served. And I still love it. More than just a pl

Quick answer Karnataka vegetarian food is shaped by seasonality, regional traditions and the everyday cooking of family kitchens. At Anvaya, I cook the Karnataka food I grew up with in Bangalore- Mysore, Sringeri temple style recipes, seasonal vegetables, homemade spice blends and dishes that are meant to be eaten together. Karnataka is a big state, so there isn't one way to cook its food. The food changes from region to region, and then again from family to family. My unders

Quick Answer A supper club is a reservation-based dining experience where a small group of guests come together for one thoughtfully prepared meal, often around a shared table. Unlike a restaurant, the experience is built around a single menu rather than individual orders. At anvaya, I host intimate Karnataka-inspired vegetarian dinners for eight guests, with a seasonal menu rooted in the family kitchens I grew up in. If you're reading this, there's a good chance you're curi

Some of the most important things we learn in a kitchen are never taught as lessons. Growing up in Bangalore, I spent many afternoons sitting beside my Appa while he cut vegetables. A plate would be placed between us, and we would sit together, cutting, peeling, sorting and talking about whatever came to mind. Sometimes there was conversation. Sometimes there was none. At the time, it did not feel like learning. At the time, it did not feel like learning. But I noticed someth

What's a Supper Club, Anyway? If you'd asked me two years ago what a supper club was, I wouldn't have had a fancy answer either. Now I'd just say - it's dinner at someone's house, cooked by someone who actually wants you there. No menu card. No waiter hovering. Just one table, one evening, and a meal made the way it's always been made in that home, not the way a restaurant kitchen would make it. That's it. That's the whole thing. Strip away the word "supper club" and it's jus

Anvaya didn't come from a business plan. It came from my mother's kitchen back in Bangalore - rice, ghee, the sound of tempering hitting hot oil, someone telling you to eat more before you've even finished. That was never a "concept." It just happened, every single day, because that's what a home does. I grew up inside that, and at some point I stopped wanting to just remember it and started wanting to feed people with it. Anvaya is that kitchen, put back on a table. Literal