Meet Malad-based Sonya Kaur, Mumbai’s very own celebrity home-chef who can cook traditional dishes from 12 States

MALAD, MUMBAI: What do you do when you are living alone, working with an MNC with a big pay packet and suddenly feel like having home-cooked gourmet food with a dash of authentic tradition, just the way your mum or grandmother made it?

Well for those who live in the Malad, Orlem, Malwani and Charkop area in the western suburbs of Mumbai, they pick up the phone and dial Sonya Kaur – Mumbai’s very own home celebrity chef who is as famous in Mumbai’s mini Goa – Orlem, for her Goan crab xacuti, as she is for her Punjabi rajma chawal or other Marwadi and Gujarati exclusive delicacies in parts of the Gujarati-dominated sectors of suburban Mumbai.

Now, you may wonder who or what a home celebrity chef is? For starters Sonya Kaur can cook authentic traditional dishes from different states, and whether it is Goan crab xacuti or authentic Punjab da baingan bharta, she does justice to both. She is also famous for her Kerala prawn sukka as she is known for her Thai Veg Red and Green Curries.

Asked to describe herself, Sonya says, she is a Punjabi who loves sea-food, particularly Goan food and wants to experiment with fusion preparations that merge cultures and traditions. All the same, she also swears by authentic, undiluted cuisines and traditional food.

32-year-old Sonya Kaur, a single mother of two young girls, took up professional cooking as a chef due to certain personal family constraints, which forced her to enter a business or work to make ends meet.

And very soon, she was much sought after in the Malad, Malwani, Charkop and Orlem areas of Mumbai’s western suburbs, with her fame spreading to even the mainline parts of the Island city. Earlier, prior to trying out her culinary skills, she had worked in the corporate world, but had to give it up as her daughters were very young and she was required at home.

Today, after almost 3 years of running her professional cook-to-order home biz, she wants to expand and reach out to more and more individuals and families who would like to try out her fusion cuisines as well as authentic traditional Goan, Punjabi, Malwan and other South and North-Indian dishes.

Unfortunately, a small food stall that she set up on an experimental basis in Malad’s Bhoomi Park area was torn down by the Municipal authorities,  forcing her to work from home, catering to takeaway orders as well as other bulk or party food biz.

The going is tough, she says, adding that setting up a food business in Mumbai is very investment heavy and individual gourmet chefs and traditional cooks alike, cannot start up even a small business in Mumbai to keep their own kitchen fires burning, unless they are able to invest several lakh, which is not possible for everyone.