Desi Making Waves

By Richa Gulati

What's On a Farmer's Spice Rack: An Interview with Mistress of Spices Nirmala Narine

In an age of celebrity chefs and twenty-four hour food television, cooks from around the nation have stepped out of their kitchens and into the limelight. But farmers from Guyana? Nirmala Narine, critically acclaimed cook and author and a proclaimed "mistress of spices," insists that despite her bestselling cookbook, successful company and routine appearances on the Today Show and in Oprah magazine, she's a simple farmer's daughter at heart. And she offers compelling proof. When this global traveler (she has visited over 125 countries to date) goes abroad, you won't find her at any fancy restaurants. "I ask the taxi driver to drop me off at a local market, and I eat at the street stalls the entire time," she says. What did she have for dinner last night? She answers that she favors simple meals like "a bowl of rice flavored with fresh Thai chilies and two fresh eggs from my farm."

Nirmala Narine is founder of Nirmala's Kitchen, the go-to company for spices, grains, sauces and much more. She is also the author of In Nirmala's Kitchen, a collection of global recipes that she lovingly accompanies with detailed narratives of her far-flung travels. Born in Guyana, South America, Nirmala learned to cook because of her South Asian background. "I was trained from a young age to master domestic tasks as training for marriage," she explains. Yet she cooked without any of the tools we take for granted, like running water or electricity. What her home may have lacked in basic amenities, Nirmala made up for with the fresh ingredients and global approach to cooking that remains the foundation of her company. "As a family of farmers, we had an intimate connection to the food we prepared since every ingredient came from our village," she says. She has maintained her respect for farmers by continuing to import the goods she sells from many plantations she visits personally. Nirmala also notes that Guyana's mix of cultures introduced her to the various Asian, Middle Eastern and South American flavors that inspire her recipes. "Not only did we have a mix of heritages in our village, but we would visit family in Mauritius where it was also common to mix flavors," she says.

To Nirmala, "spice is the soul of all cuisine," and she started her company—after selling the corporate gifts business she ran for years prior to the dot-com bust—by offering six different spice blends passed down from family tradition. She now sells nearly 100 spices online. "Whether it's [a] Moroccan spice mix that invokes the flavor of a tajine [a traditional dish slow-cooked in an earthenware pot] or a curry blend, I believe spices are the key to cooking." But in a culture with little time for cooking and increasingly dependent on take-out and fast-food meals, where does a novice cook start? "New cooks should start with six spices," Nirmala advises, "which are cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, cumin, coriander and curry powder." She suggests playing with these spices in regular recipes—like adding garam masala to hamburgers–to expand a beginner's palate. Nirmala also advises buying spices like cumin and coriander in seed form and roasting them before use to enhance their flavors. "Spices shouldn't just flavor the tongue but instead stimulate all senses, and roasting spice seeds awakens a spice's smell," she notes. Nirmala is insistent that the smell of whole spices roasting helps the appetite crave new taste sensations.

If a part of Nirmala's inspiration comes from her multi-ethnic upbringing in Guyana, followed by the neighborhoods of Queens, New York, Nirmala's Kitchen also pays tribute to her Ayurvedic roots. "My grandfather was a Ayurvedic practitioner, and he used spices as a way to heal, as well as a form of compassion for others," Nirmala says. As a devotee of Ayurveda, Nirmala believes first and foremost that you are what you eat, and notes, "If you only eat the Golden Arches, your body will reflect that." So her ingredients are all organic, a practice she observed long before the "green" movement became trendy. She even makes her own hair and beauty treatments out of homemade ingredients.

Her grandfather's influence, however, extends far beyond Nirmala's kitchen. "My grandfather would always feed and hold children, particularly those that did not have families of their own, and his attention to nourishing youth motivates me," Nirmala acknowledges. During her travels, she often finds herself in orphanages, cooking and feeding the children, and to this day, she is focused on helping youth. Having left New York City for a 100-plus acre farm in upstate Hudson Valley, Nirmala envisions bringing New York City schoolkids to her greenhouse to experience food fresh from the earth. The greenhouse is just one of Nirmala's projects. She sits on the board of the National Association of Specialty Food Trade, an organization that once supported her fledgling business, with the goal of helping other South Asian entrepreneurs create small businesses for their wares. Nirmala is also hard at work on her second cookbook and is in talks with several networks about hosting her own cooking show, which she hopes to debut in early 2009. She hesitates, however, at the thought of creating her own restaurant, since she is not sure that would further her goal of bringing her unique cooking perspective to the masses. "Ultimately, I want to develop Nirmala's Kitchen as a brand that focuses on wholesome global food so that I can pass on, particularly to the next generation of South Asians, a respect for food, culture and earth as a way of life," she says.