Journalist turned Chef

Ruchira Hoon is a self taught chef and have been cooking since the age of 9 and hosting dinner parties since she was 12 year old. Earlier Ruchira was also a journalist during which most of her writings was about food.

Ruchira, Chef and Founder of The Ruchira Kitchen shares, "I am deeply inspired by both my grandmothers' cooking. I love cooking and feeding people and one of the reasons I decided to be in the food industry was because I love the idea of all things food. If you ever come to my house, you'll notice books coming out of my ears well, honestly just books shelves all over the place and every possible pantry ingredient you can dream of. As much as I love to cook, I also love writing and researching and perhaps that is why I stuck to journalism for over a decade. My journey in journalism really helped me understand what I wanted to do next. Because I was writing so much about food, I also managed to make some inroads thanks to it. This made my switch so much easier."

She switched from journalism to food at the age of 35. It was something that she was deliberating for a while especially after she went to Masterchef India in 2011. That was a pivotal point for her as she could see her calibre of cooks around her and realised that she could really hack this.

She adds, "Honestly, I love to cook, feed and repeat - which is what made me want to be a chef. I think I realised that I had the ability to make food taste better with few small additions while I was quite young and that was something I honed. Since I am on a sabbatical from Ek Bar, Olive Bar and Kitchen - I decided to open a delivery kitchen called The Ruchira Kitchen. The idea behind the delivery kitchen was simple; serving simple, delicious and wholesome food that was not only home-cooked but was served restaurant-style. I also wanted to showcase little known recipes from the South which is where I grew up and show the people in NCR how and why different flavors work."

She has cooked recipes such as Madurai style Mutton curry with drumsticks, Mangalorean Jackfruit Gassy amongst other things. She also has a whole range of Tres Leches cakes in different flavors that she absolutely loves. She prepares a lot of Persian and Pakistani food, all things that she has learnt and loved along the way

Delicious recipe workshops

She shares, "My workshops are a way to showcase all my fool-proof recipes that I have learnt and gathered from my travels and my cooking. Because I cook so many different things in a given week, as I am constantly trying new things to eat, there are just some amazing recipes that I have loved. I have been doing food workshops for over five years now including for brands such as Foodhall and Ikea and realized that I absolutely love teaching."

Cereal Killer Cookbook Club

Already 2 years old, The Cereal Killer Cookbook Club was born out of her sheer love for cookbooks. She felt there had to be more people like her who loved cookbooks and loved cooking out them.

"What I discovered was an incredible community of people who loved to cook! And it's been incredible. We have cooked out of nearly 20 books in the last 2 years (barring 4 months in the lockdown) and its been an unforgettable experience. There are 30 members, all of whom cook a delicious recipe from the chosen book each month and we either send each other food or meet in person and eat. The idea is to experience the book in one go and talk about the recipes. We have also interacted with some incredible cookbook authors including Dorie Greenspan, Lara Lee, Sami Tamimi and it's the cookbook that has given us access to these amazing people," she adds.

Sharing about her experience of being a contestant in the Masterchef, she shares that one thing that struck her very sharply was Masterchef India has nothing to do with food.

"You needed to have a back story with all the drama and were willing to cry on camera washing your dirty linen in public. I didn't want to do any of that. I also realised that the calibre of people cooking in Masterchef India was well, not on par with people in Australia or UK or US. Having said that I made some incredible friends and it was a time that taught me a lot in terms of people management, and not so much about food," concludes Ruchira.