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ABOUT ME                 AWARDS & PRESS                   FAVORITES

ABOUT ME

Saira is a mother of two and lover of food. She lives in New York City, and like so many people here, her story stretches far beyond the grid of Manhattan. She grew up in a London suburb to a Punjabi family who lived by a simple belief that family dinners can be spontaneous, sometimes-messy, and always-delicious.

From London she moved on to Italy, France, and eventually New York, deepening and adding layers to her approach to food at every step of the journey. Now, living with her two boys and husband in New York, efficiency rules the day.

As a graduate from the French Culinary Institute, appeared in the New York Times and on Food Network’s Rewrapped…, but also as a mother, Saira believes firmly in one thing: fussing over an authentic, perfectly-executed biryani counts for nothing when you only have 15 minutes to prepare dinner between taekwondo practice and mediating fights over Fortnite. 

For Saira, it makes much more sense to throw together something easy and accessible, finding inspiration in everything from fresh farmer’s market fresh strawberry ice-pops (or ice-lollies) to Israeli breakfasts, to that one episode of Ugly Delicious you caught on Netflix, to whatever you have lying around in the pantry.

Saira prides her cooking classes in NYC on this ideology: recapturing the sense of fun and discovery that’s still possible in home cooking, if you open yourself up to it.

This blog is an extension of those classes: a friendly, supportive resource for building skills in the kitchen, learning and sharing recipes, and discovering your own taste and culinary style. So grab yourself a cup of tea and join the community! Your spice rack isn’t as scary as it seems.

AWARDS AND PRESS

AWARDS

Winner of the Varli Food Festival Cook-Off

PRESS

New York Times - Diners Journal ~ "What We're Reading"
indiaink
New York Times - India Ink ~ "Adding Indian Spice to Christmas"
New York Times - India Ink ~ "A Curry Club in Uptown Manhattan"
Food Blogger on Rachel Ray
Food Blogger on Marcus Samuelson

CURRY CLUB

The Curry Club Press Release
Gothamist - Eat British-Style Curry Every Monday Night in November 
New York Times - A Curry Club in Uptown Manhattan

FAVORITES

Cookbooks

 American Masala - Suvir Saran
Tom Colicchio - Think Like a Chef
How to Cook Italian - Giuliano Hazan
Jamie Oliver - The Return Of The Naked Chef
The Cookbook - Ottolenghi
Family Food: A New Approach to Cooking, Heston Blumenthal

Cooking Tools

Le Creuset Dutch Oven
Korin Knives
Kitchen Aid Immersion Blender
Microplane Superior
Hawkins Pressure Cookers

Restaurants, Markets & Cafes

Blue Hill Stone Barns, NYC
Union Square Green Market, NYC
Eataly, NYC
Kalustyan's, NYC
Lotus Of Siam, NYC
Tulsi, NYC
Mehtaphor, NYC
Jones Wood Foundry, NYC
Royal China, London
Patel Brothers, NYC


chefsaira.com 2020