Award-winning author and Atlanta chef Asha Gomez is best known for blending the cooking traditions from her homeland of Kerala in southern India with flavors taken from right here in the American South.
Her latest cookbook is a celebration of food as an art form and a way to explore and experience other cultures. “I Cook in Color: Bright Flavors From My Kitchen and Around the World” features recipes from around the world.
The book also reflects on Gomez’s personal connection to cooking. “I Cook in Color” is filled with memories of time spent cooking with her mother in Kerala, sharing her passion for cooking with her family here, and plenty of stories of her own travel experiences.
Asha joined Lois Reitzes to talk about some delicious recipes from her book and why cooking is vital to our culture.
Interview Highlights
Asha on cooking and the inspiration for this book:
“For me, cooking is really it’s such a visual aesthetic first. ‘I Cook In Color’ is such a love story to my family and my friends and especially my son. It’s a reflection on all the countries that we’ve traveled to all the amazing kitchens that have been fortunate enough to cook in. I’m generally boxed into cooking the cuisine of my ancestral kitchen, which is my mother’s kitchen and my grandmother’s kitchen. Meanwhile, I left India 35 years ago, and I call the U.S. home now. For 35 years, I’ve traveled the world over, eaten in kitchens around the world. ‘I Cook in Color’ is really a reflection of the sum total of my life experiences and what I put on a plate.”
On the recipes in “I Cook in Color”:
“Every recipe in “I Cook in Color” was tested and retested in my kitchen with my family. So I really kept in mind the home cook and the ease at which you could make these recipes. And so, for me, with “I Cook in Color,” I think I became a better recipe writer, just from the experience of writing one cookbook already. I think it’s probably my best work yet because I try to simplify it as much as I possibly can.”
