Home Chefs Bring the Personal to Dining Out

There are many ways to become a professional chef.

- Ruth Dsouza Prabhu

A tried-and-tested route is graduating from a culinary school and refining one's skills at restaurants. Another somewhat tangential approach is being a home chef, honing culinary instincts over the gas stove, and showcasing food with a deep personal connection. A handful of home chefs are now helming premium dining experiences—a trend that evolved after the home-chef boom before and during the pandemic. As India's dining landscape evolves, their contribution cannot be overlooked. Lounge spoke to four home chefs with new restaurants that continue to preserve their home-style approach.

Ruchira Hoon
Dakshin Canteen, Delhi
Ruchira Hoon opened the 26-seater Dakshin Canteen restaurant in December. Growing up a latchkey child in Delhi, Hoon, 45, began cooking at the age of nine. She grew up eating all kinds of food, thanks to her Punjabi and Tamil roots. Though she dreamt of culinary school, family expectations led her to journalism instead.

Hoon often hosted parties that showcased entire recipe books, cooking the dishes from scratch. She transitioned from journalism to blogging and food consulting in 2012. When the pandemic hit, she launched her home kitchen, The Ruchira Kitchen. On weekends, she served coastal and south Indian food, dishes from Persia, Pakistan, and more. "I found the response to south Indian food good. Dakshin Canteen was thus conceptualised to go beyond the stereotypical idli-vada-dosa approach and offer an explosion of flavours," she says.