Kaumudi Marathé

Kaumudi is a journalist by training and a chef by choice. Born in Maharashtra on India’s west coast, she grew up in other parts of India, Britain, and North America, so in her mother’s kitchen, she ate an astonishing array of international foods. 

Food, family, and memory are intertwined in Kaumudi’s head so when

she got married and set up her own kitchen in Bombay, she started researching Marathi and Indian cuisines as a way to connect with her roots. It also led her to explore the science behind the spices she was cooking with

In 2007, having lived in California for nine years, she started Un-Curry, a catering company and cooking school. Un-Curry served up dishes that reflected the diversity and history of an ancient land. India’s food ranges from earthy and rustic to sophisticated, complex and layered.

Kaumudi hosted the first Indian pop–ups in the USA, showcasing what she calls real, regional, organic Indian food to introduce Americans to the richness and diversity of her country's culinary traditions and shatter the myth of some stereotypical Indian cuisine called “curry”.

Over time, Kaumudi's cooking style has evolved into what she calls California Indian: a unique blend of her native traditions with the fresh and wonderful ingredients of her adopted home. She blends seasonal, organic, California ingredients with Indian spices, culinary techniques and Ayurvedic philosophy.

Kaumudi’s first cookbook of Marathi food, Maharashtrian Cuisine: A Family

Treasury (Zaika, BPI, 1999) documents her family’s food history. Her second cookbook, The Essential Marathi Cookbook, published in 2009 by Penguin India has been listed in the USA as one of the 10 best books on Indian cooking. Her food memoir, Shared Tables: Family Stories and Recipes from Poona to LA came out in 2017 (https://speakingtigerbooks.com/product/shared-tables/).

After a 5–year stint at America's Test Kitchen in Boston, Kaumudi has returned to teaching private cooking classes in California and writing about Indian food.