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I was born in Mumbai, when it was still called Bombay.
My childhood was spent with my grandmother (who was a
great and passionate cook), with many aunts (who spent each afternoon
cooking up goodies for when we came home from school) and of course
with my mother (who introduced us to world cuisines at an early age)
I grew up learning Indian classical dance, traditional
Indian beauty secrets and good traditional cooking and developed a
great passion for the vibrancy and diversity of my country.
I completed a 3 year professional diploma from the
Institute of Hotel Management, Catering Technology and Applied
Nutrition, Mumbai, more commonly known as the Catering College, which
is considered the finest of its kind in India. Here
I qualified as a chef and my love for cooking was polished to a fine
art! Later I did a BA in Ancient Indian History, Politics and
Economics. A diploma in natural beauty therapy followed.
I then moved to London where I also got a diploma in
Journalism. Meanwhile my training in Indian dance continued and along
with everything else, I also became a professional performer. If you
will like to read more about my dance career click
here.
I set up my first home in England when I was 22. I tried
out countless recipes in order to replicate what I had eaten in India.
I tried new methods, ingredients and combinations until I taught myself
a style that I was comfortable with and more in keeping with my new
life. Although I was a qualified chef, I needed to find a way to pare
down the fuss and bother of traditional Indian cooking.
Today, what I cook is quite straightforward and I use the time saved to
pursue some of my hobbies such as reading, travelling and restoring
Indian antiques. I enjoy cooking traditional recipes as well as newer
ones that I have created.
I started writing professionally at the age of fifteen when I wrote a
weekly column on teenage issues such as relationships, education and
style for a leading newspaper called 'The Evening Standard' in Mumbai.
Early on in my cooking career, I worked as a food consultant to the
Times of India group of newspapers where I was responsible for the
catering of the executive dining suite where national and international
celebrities were entertained.
Later I worked for a couple of years at the Bombay Brasserie in London
where I was involved with party bookings and customer relations.
In my dance career, I have performed Indian dance shows as a soloist
and as a part of a company (Shobana Jeyasingh and my own Monisha
Bharadwaj Danceworks) in many international festivals including Dance
Umbrella (UK) Festival de Lille (France) and Du Maurier World Stage
Festival (Toronto).
I have won dance awards too, a prominent one being the 'Time Out London
Dance and Performance Award' for my choreography of a Bollywood type
musical.
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