Smita Chutke

From the “Land of Spices” to the “Land of Opportunities,” my story begins when I was 5 years old with split summer vacations. First visiting my maternal grandmother, Nani, in Maharashtra, who owned a small business of making handmade noodles, snacks, and various home goods. My Nani woke up at 3 AM and started her day managing a large family while running the business. After few weeks of visiting her we would embark to the south of India in Hyderabad to stay with my father's side of family, where my grandma, Dadi, lived. She taught me the art of blending spices.

Learning to cook from my grandmothers would forever influence my style of cooking. They taught me the value of making food from scratch and always using fresh, seasonal ingredients. We learned how to source our food and bought farm-fresh meat, dairy, and even whole grains that we cleaned and milled to make chapatis. We were taught to never waste food and to only take what we needed.

I come from humble beginnings and my childhood was one full of learning and experiencing new things. I grew up on an Indian Air Force base and moved to a new place every year; I experienced the diversity of the entire country.

In 2002, I moved to the United States, pursuing a master’s degree in biomedical engineering in NYC. During this time, when I wanted to order Indian food, I couldn’t find anything that reminded me of home. I learned of the inaccurate perception about Indian culture being pushed into the world through cultural appropriation, colonization, and globalization that suppresses the truth about my culture, about me.

In an effort to provide a more authentic image of Indian culture, Smita’s Cookery began. Through this work of over twenty years—alongside a career in finance—I am the lead chef for private dinners and cooking classes, providing a genuine and realistic connection to my culture for anyone interested in learning about the flavors I grew up learning.

I create small-batch Indian spice blends formulated with old generational recipes from her home, for your home. These blends can be found at my website, the Lexington Co-op, Farmers & Artisans Market, Moriarity Meats, and the Massachusetts Avenue Project shop. And my advocating through creative cooking can be seen in action on Netflix’s cooking contest, “Cook At All Costs,” where home chefs to bid on ingredients to make unique dishes judged by celebrity guest chefs. I am featured in season one, episode seven, “Global Fusion.”

For me cooking is not just about learning recipes or techniques but an emotion you transfer to your food. And through Smita’s Cookery, I serve that philosophy by sharing my food, spices and knowledge.

Jaydense is an upcoming Hip Hop Artist/Singer/Songwriter from Buffalo, NY. Although rooted in rap; Jaydense' music bends plenty of different genres & is written & articulated to reach multiple audiences. Check out his latest body of work 'Poetic Vice' Out Now on all platforms!