What prompted you to get into food blogging?
My passion and interest towards food blogging started even before social media became popular. But only a few years ago I found the right platform to showcase my work and share it with the world.

You seem to be focused on South Indian food?
Being born into a South Indian family, traditional South Indian cuisine is deep rooted within me. Though I explore various cuisines, my South Indian recipes become a hit naturally.

Where do you source your recipes from?
Most of the recipes I share are heirloom, passed on through generations. Whenever I come across a new and interesting dish, I don’t hesitate to ask for the recipe. My thirst for acquiring knowledge about food will continue always.

A lot of your recipes feature earthenware and traditional utensils — is there a reason behind this?
Most of the vessels I showcase in my videos are inherited from my great-grandmother. We use these traditional vessels in our day-to-day cooking. Food prepared in traditional, earthen cookware retains nutrients, enhances taste, saves cooking time and fuel and keeps food warm for a longer time.

What does food mean to you?
Simple, healthy, hygienic food is my mantra. We make sure to have at least one meal a day together as a family. I discovered food need not only be a feast to the stomach but also to the eyes. Cooking with dedication and a happy mind makes food ambrosia and I am against food wastage.

If you had to choose five dishes that are closest to you, which would they be and why?

1) Rasam: There is nothing that my mom’s piping hot rasam-sadam bowl drizzled with melted ghee cannot fix. My mom makes rasam every day without repetition for a month. There are so many varieties of rasam like kalyana rasam, pathiya rasam, gottu rasam, veppam poo rasam and so on…

2) Idli: Staple, comforting all-time favourite of mine. Rated as the No.1 healthy breakfast world-wide. Side dishes may vary from chutneys, sambar, kadapa, vada curry to simple milagai podi. These easily digestible steamed beauties can be enjoyed by infants to the aged.

3) Pizza: Pizza is my comfort food. Warm, cheesy and I have all the privilege of picking my own toppings when homemade. Wheat thin-crust base loaded with veggies and pineapple chunks is my favourite.

4) Maagali: This root vegetable is made into pickle. It’s a curd based pickle made with zero percent oil and can be preserved until the next season without refrigeration. Many don’t like the distinct aroma of this tuber. Many don’t even know it exists, but it tastes heavenly with curd rice, upma and dosai.

5) Curd Rice: Others — there’s always room for desserts. Me — there’s always room for curd rice.

How do you create your content — from the shots, to the editing to the perfect choice of music — every single time?
My content is strictly planned or to be precise, I work on the pre-shoot a lot to set the stage and decide how to exhibit the food that the viewers like. I follow simple shooting methodologies with minimal equipment. And for the songs, I put a lot of thoughts into and try out many to get the better ones and I am happy people like it.

You choose to keep your face out of the videos — are you camera shy or do you think it would distract people from the focus — the food?
Yes, I want the focus to be on my content, which I try to keep as engaging and captivating as possible rather than showing my face.

With your channel becoming increasingly popular – what next? Where do you see brand Foodzeee in the coming year?
I will consistently continue to share quality content and entertain people. I’m waiting for the right opportunity to venture into the food industry.

Tell us a little bit about yourself — your story, your food journey — how did you come to love cooking so much?
All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them. I am supposed to be a doctor by now but I am happily food blogging. With all the courage I could muster I decided to change my career path and I am glad that I am marching towards success with people’s love from all over the world. Don’t limit yourself; follow the path you love with dedication and you will be a success one day. I am from a family of great cooks. Both my mom and my sister are passionate cooks. So I developed interest in cooking very early in my life.