My story
Hi, welcome to my page! My name is Hazel, and I hail from the beautiful nation of India. India is known for its beauty, culture, color, fashion, and above all, its love for food.
Like with many cultures, in India our hospitality begins and ends with and around food. Any and all celebrations call for some kind of ethnic or cultural cuisine. In fact, I think people just make an excuse to either go out and eat or get together and have tons of food. In any case, you might have guessed that I love and am very passionate about food.
My love and journey for food began young. I come from a big family where I grew up with uncles and aunts and lots of cousins, and because I also come from a very mixed cultural family, I grew up eating and enjoying all kinds of food. I married my husband who worked in the hospitality industry and therefore by default was around food and restaurants all my life.
My husband and I owned and operated a successful Indian restaurant in NJ for a good 18 years. However, life threw a curve ball, and after Covid happened, my husband suddenly passed away, and I was thrown into the rough of things.
I tried managing and running the restaurant for a year and a half after his demise, but life again had other plans. Daunted with the covid mess, loans, house, and kids, I realized that I could not manage it all. I had to let the restaurant go about two years ago. However, things worked out for good, as I soon found out that I have an autoimmune disease that has left me with few options. I find myself unable to do a full-time job and have decided that working on my own schedule and doing what I passionately love would be the best option for me. So here I am!
What to expect
If I may say so myself, I know that anyone that tries my food will definitely come back for more. With two kids in their late teenage years and growing up playing sports I had to innovate and extend my cooking skills from just Indian food. I do pride myself in making quite a different variety of food. I make a vast variety of Italian foods, Thai and a whole lot of Indian foods. If I am being honest I do not bake at all, I cannot bake (as in sweets) to save my life.
Our ingredients
Once again growing up in India, I am used to making things with more fresh ingredients than frozen. Not to say I don't used frozen stuff, but where I can use fresh I use fresh. I source usually from local supermarkets. I also primarily cook with olive oil unless required to used something else.
Our flavors
I do not necessarily use a particular secret sauce. I innovate as much as I can and I also am very aware of my taste buds and like experimenting and playing with flavors.
