Chetna Makan

Chetna Makan is a contributing writer at Serious Eats.
Location: Canterbury, England
Education: National Institute of Fashion Technology
Expertise: Indian food
  • Now a resident of Canterbury, England, Chetna was born in the central Indian city of Jabalpur and has contributed both sweet and savory Indian recipes to Serious Eats.
  • In 2014, she was a contestant in The Great British Bake Off, and has since gone on to publish five cookbooks.
  • She shares cooking and baking advice on Food With Chetna, her popular Youtube channel.

Experience

Born and raised in the central Indian city of Jabalpur, Chetna has contributed a number of Indian recipes to Serious Eats, including shankarpali—small fried pastries with cardamom. 

Chetna moved to England in 2004 after working as a fashion designer in Mumbai. Ten years later, she appeared as a contestant on The Great British Bake Off, and soon after her career as a cookbook writer and Youtube host was launched. 

Chetna’s cooking is greatly influenced by the flavors of her mother’s cooking, as well as by culinary techniques from her adoptive country. Her third book, Chai, Chaat, and Chutney (2017), is about the best street food found in four regions of India, while her latest offers recipes for preparing Indian recipes in 30 minutes or less.

She also shares weekly recipes on her Youtube channel, Food With Chetna, including collaborations with fellow Bake Off alumni.

About Serious Eats

Serious Eats, a Dotdash brand, is an award-winning food and drink website visited by over 7 million hungry readers every month. Our audience comes to us for rigorously tested recipes, science-driven cooking techniques, robust equipment reviews, and stories that offer cultural and historical context to the foods we love to eat.

Dotdash is among the largest and fastest growing publishers online, and has won over 50 awards in the last year alone, including Digiday's 2020 Publisher of the Year. Dotdash brands include Verywell, Investopedia, The Balance, The Spruce, Simply Recipes, Serious Eats, Byrdie, Brides, MyDomaine, Lifewire, TripSavvy, Liquor.com, and TreeHugger.

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