“Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.”
~ Harriet Van Horne
Making food is never a chore for me and eating never an act of sustenance. Between family, friends, and a busy career as a communication strategist and graphic designer, making food is my daily meditation, my happy place. While some paint, write, sing or play, I make food.
So much emphasis in making great food is on fine, expensive ingredients. To me, the most vital ingredient is love, and there is nothing I enjoy more than sharing that love with others through my food. Whether that is through finding simple ingredients in my pantry or repurposing leftovers from the fridge, I hope to create a little bit of magic on my plate at the end of every day.
It was after moving from Pakistan to the United States over a decade ago, that I truly started focusing on food as a craft that I could hone. With scarce space in my first one-bedroom apartment in Boston and without the vast array of ingredients I was used to, I developed a style that I could reproduce in my tiny kitchen.
Along the way, I volunteered in under-served schools, continued to advocate for women’s rights through my writing, and shared my cooking and food with more people than I can keep a count of. I hope to continue to share my experiences and recipes and my love for food with many more through this space.
Simply Desi 