Rasthal represents a typical Indian household meal balanced with these 6 tastes – Sweet, Sours, Salty, Pungent, Bitter and Astringent. In culturally diverse city of Vadodara, Gujarat, I grew up seeing my mother and grandmother cooking and serving we 5 siblings at home and few more via their catering services. My passion and knowledge of traditional food comes from them. Their recipes carried blend of motherly traditions and experiments. ‘’Le chakh’’ – ‘’Taste it’’ – followed by how it is prepared – were best learnings I had from my mother and grandmother. In our home, kitchen was an immediate clinic. Headache, cramps or low mood, our grandmother always had something to offer from pre-industry recipes. During celebrations, even small, food continuously served as bond keeping our family traditional intact across generations. The kitchen has been my loved place with full of stories. Via Rasthal, I try to bring our traditional homely recipes to you. Spices are basic but diverse. Cooking is straightforward and fun as there no pressure to ‘’decorate’’ the plate but make it fulfilling. Together with culture of using local ingredients, I try to keep our heritage of seasonal cooking accessible. Seasonal recipes like ‘’Undhiyu’’ during Uttarayan or ‘’Ghughara-Mathia’’ on Diwali & Thepla/Handvo any day with authentic ingredients like millets & pulses shall introduce Indian food beyond curry and rice. I want to help community to celebrate festivals with best traditional food missed at home in Germany away from home in India. Most importantly, I try to bring food to you which I would love my family to eat, Homely-Fresh-Healthy. Yours, Kina Patel
