5 Indian Female Chefs Who Have Transformed The Culinary Game

It’s 2023, and by now, we have very well established that cooking isn’t a gender-specific task rather, it’s a basic necessity. But when it comes to taking food up to several notches higher, it is only professional chefs you can trust. These Indian female chefs are breaking the stereotypes of a primarily male-dominated industry and how!

I remember as a kid, it used to baffle me seeing the women in the households dedicate their life to cooking healthy, nutritious meals and feeding the family, whereas all the famous chefs I knew were men. That was the 90s. Today, it is an industry where women are equal contributors and crowd pullers, with extraordinary achievements in their kitty. These Indian female chefs have not only revolutionised food here in India, but also abroad. Coming from a gourmand herself, today we celebrate all these female chefs who are breaking the glass ceiling, one dish at a time.

Indian female chefs who are cooking up a storm in the culinary world

Chef Romy Gill

A British-Indian chef, food writer, author and broadcaster, Chef Gill was appointed an MBE in the Queen’s 90th birthday honours list. If that’s not enough, she is also one of the most celebrated chefs on BBC1’s Ready Steady Cook, among many other food shows. She is also a regular contributor at several prestigious publications, like The Sunday Times, BBC Food and the Telegraph.

Chef Garima Arora

Many didn’t know of this iconic Indian female chef before the current season of Masterchef India. But she has been a legend, as she became the first Indian woman to win a Michelin star. Having studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, she has worked with the likes of Chef Gaggan Anand, Gordon Ramsay and René Redzepi of the famous Noma in Copenhagen. Her restaurant Gaa in Bangkok was voted as Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list at No.16 in 2019, and the very next year, she was named Asia’s Best Female Chef of the year by World’s 50 Best Restaurants.

Related Stories

Chef Madhu W. Krishnan

The Executive Chef, Culinary Research and Development at ITC Hotels, this Indian female chef has been handcrafting some of the most iconic dishes. Her introduction to cooking happened at her parents’ house when she was growing up. She started her career in August 1990 when there were not many female chefs around. From there to having been the first woman in India to have won the prestigious Hotelier India Award and National Tourism Award for Best Lady Chef of the Year by the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations, she has come a long way.

Chef Ritu Dalmia

A celebrity female Indian chef, she is the chef and co-owner of the famous Italian restaurant Diva and Latitude 28 in Delhi. One of the most cult Indian chefs cooking Italian in the country, she hosted her cooking show called Italian Khana on NDTV Good Times and then also published her first cookbook by the same name. One of the most notable feats of her career was when she was awarded the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity by the Government of Italy in December 2011.

Chef Bani Nanda

She is the Indian female chef behind the famous French dessert brand, Miam Patisserie. Even though desserts are quite a saturated domain in the Indian culinary scene, she found a gap and decided to work upon it. That was the lack of good French desserts in India and that’s how the idea of Miam occurred. Having studied at Le Cordon Bleu, Paris, she had a first-hand understanding and tryst with classic French desserts.

All Images: Courtesy Instagram

This story first appeared here

Written By