Celebrity chef and author Mallika Badrinath, pioneer of Tamil TV cookery shows and host of Arusuvai Neram for 25 years, continues to shine in the culinary world
Celebrity chef and author Mallika Badrinath, a familiar face on television and on social media has been making waves in the culinary ocean. Hers was the first cookery show both on Sun TV and Jaya TV and her popular cookery show ‘Arusuvai Neram’ on Jaya TV has been streaming for the past 25 years.
Born in Krishnagiri, she grew up in a big joint family of 25 members in Salem. Her schooling was done at the Government Girls Higher Secondary School in Salem and graduation at Sri Sarada College for Women where she pursued a degree in Home Science.
Marriage to Badrinath, a chartered accountant made her change base to Chennai. Blessed with two sons and three grandsons, all of whom are settled in the United States of America, Mallika resides in Chennai with her husband and 91- year- old mother-in-law.
She recalls how all the women members in her joint family where she grew up had their own collection of hand written recipes that they collected over the years. Mallika too had a big collection of recipes and decided to publish them as a book.
She says ‘’In those days, there were neither TV shows nor YouTube channels where one could get recipes and women solely depended upon recipe books, so I decided to share my knowledge and started authoring cookery books.’
The first book, with 100 vegetarian recipes, released in 1988 and sold more than 10 lakh copies. The books are in English and Tamil and few books have been translated into Kannada and Telugu as well. So far, she has authored 30 books which sold like hot cakes and are really useful for all especially for beginners and bachelors. Her aim is to bring out one book per year.
Creativity is innate in her and she is also adept at crochet, fabric painting and doll making. Though she learnt Carnatic music and how to play the Veena, nowadays, she hardly gets time to pursue her hobbies.
Right from a young age, Mallika has been an early riser and wakes up before the crack of dawn to start her daily routine.
Her passion for food and flavour made her start Mallika Badrinath Veetu Samayal, a YouTube channel, 7 years ago where she does the shooting and editing of the videos herself and focusses on cooking creative, healthy and tasty dishes.
Besides, television shows for Doordarshan, Jaya TV, Vijay TV and Sun TV, her articles on food and nutrition have been published in many Tamil magazines like Kungumam, Kumudham, Mangaiyar Malar etc. Her name and fame also spread globally and she hosted cookery shows streamed on Sakthi TV in Sri Lanka for 6 years.
When she toured the US in 2000 along with both her sons, she conducted live cookery shows in 10 or 12 places which was well received.
The entrepreneur in her made her start a masala powder company named Mallika Home Products in 1999. The factory was based in Red Hills and Mallika recalls going on alternate days to supervise the grinding of the masala powders. Around 25 comfort food products manufactured here included sambar powder, rasam powder, paruppu podi, instant food mixes etc. However, due to the pandemic, this company wound up.
Rotary Club and some Ladies Clubs invite her at regular intervals to conduct cookery shows and contests.
Being a spiritual person, Mallika spends a lot of time reading spiritual books and for the past 45 years, she has been making around 3 to 5 crowns per year for Lord Krishna at the Venugopala Swami Devasthanam in Gopalapuram. Papier mache, lace, bells, stones, artificial jewelry and false hair are used to make the crown for the deity.
Whenever there is a rare free moment, she enjoys catching up with books especially novels of author Sivasankari. The reading habit was instilled in her during childhood and she recalls having a library in her joint family.
According to her, “There is no end to learning and I like to delve into the treasures of Ayurveda and Siddha. I also like to read the Encyclopedia and books on nutrition to widen my knowledge.’’
Winning awards and accolades for her culinary skills have been part of her journey, the latest being ‘Outstanding woman of the Year’ by Inner Wheel Club, Madras in 2025,
Her message to the readers is “Cooking is both an Art and a Science. People have a wrong notion that healthy food is not tasty. One should develop healthy food habits and try to incorporate all the 6 tastes for balanced nutrition.’’
Juliana Sridhar is a lawyer and columnist.