Navigate
X

About Me

Hi,

I am Riddhi, a dental surgeon, researcher in making and food enthusiast.

I live in Bangalore with my husband. I have loved food all my life (being from Surat, India I think it’s a given ? ) and despite my mom’s attempts at teaching me to cook I never learnt (children!!! ? ). Or so I thought! Curious? Read on.

I remember baking my first ever cake at the age of 13 along with my baby sister (who was 8 at the time!) as a surprise for mum. It was a vanilla sponge cake and mum loved it (the surprise and cake both). I remember enjoying the whole process of reading and understanding the recipe, mise en place, following each and every direction from my mum’s handwritten recipe book. I kept baking occasionally on mum or dad’s birthdays/anniversary but never really thought of pursuing it seriously (wish I had!). My love for baking and cooking flourished only after I started living on my own. I moved to Bangalore for my graduation and have lived here ever since (except a short stint in London). My initial days in the kitchen began with making Instant Noodles (I guess I am not alone in this. Right? Right.), eggs and rice and gradually kitchen became my happy place, my sanctuary. Probably I found it to be the only way to keep close to my roots – food memories from childhood, alive in my new home; away from my family. And during that experimenting phase I realized that mum’s attempts at teaching me to cook weren’t completely futile. I had learnt a great deal just by being coaxed into observing her cook and turns out I am just like her. When I make any of my mum’s recipe, I remember steps, details, kitchen hacks, the small nuances which she explained oh so nonchalantly while cooking back in the day, all so dear to me now.

This is a vegetarian food blog and because I love baking a tad bit more than cooking, you’ll see lots of desserts around here (Yes, I am a dentist and I have a sweet jaw!). I’ve got quite a global palate and I gorge on continental food pretty often but I love my bomb Indian flavours, hence the menu here is going to be quite a cocktail. ? Almost all of the recipes on this blog are my own but because I love reading blogs of my super-talented fellow bloggers, some of the recipes I share here might be an inspiration or a spin-off of them, in that case due credit will be given of course, just as I expect if you decide to use any recipe or an image from Cook By Book.

All the images for the blog are taken by me, on my trusted companions iPhone 4S and iPhone 5s as of now. I use Instagram and Pic monkey to edit my images. The images may not be as great as you get from DSLR but I try my best to make them eye-pleasing and I promise, the recipe will surely be kick-ass. I earnestly try to improve on my photography and styling with each post because we all devour our food with eyes first, right? I am enjoying it immensely as food photography and styling is every bit as beautiful an art as cooking and baking. I spend a lot of time browsing my way through hundreds of blogs and Pinterest for inspiration to improve my photography and styling. It’s like taking an online art class tbh.

I know I have a long way to go and surely the blog is just a beginning. ?

Have questions or just want to say hi, please email – cookbybook@yahoo.com, comment or submit the contact form below. I would love to know you! ?

If you’ve read this far thank you for dropping by! I hope you like what you see and would follow along on this journey by hitting Subscribe (on the right).

Happy Cooking!

Cheers! xx

Share this recipe:

View Comments (0)

Leave a Comment