Noorbanu Nimji and Karen Anderson

Noorbanu Nimji was Ismaili Muslim with roots in Gujarat, India; Noorbanu was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya before moving to Canada in the 1970s during the expulsion of "non-Africans" by then-president of Uganda, Idi Amin. The youth of her community sought Noorbanu as a cooking mentor and she is credited with being the first to write down recipes that had previously only been handed down by oral tradition. She excelled at the art, and the four cookbooks in the A Spicy Touch series have sold over a quarter million copies worldwide. Noorbanu died on June 10, 2020.

Karen Anderson is founder of Alberta Food Tours based in Calgary, Alberta. She is a Taste Canada and World Gourmand Cookbook Awards winning author and travel writer. She's led several cuisine and culture trips to different regions of India and is currently working on a South Indian cookbook featuring all the chefs she's cooked with in that region. Having known and worked with Noorbanu for two decades, Karen is proud to carry on Noorbanu's legacy of teaching and writing about Indian cooking.