India's leading female chefs

“I know it doesn’t make sense, and I don’t understand it. But it is consistently the case: Women are better cooks. They approach food differently,” says Mario Batali, celebrity chef and owner of Babbo, in Bill Buford’s Book Heat. Women certainly don’t have it easy in the kitchen though. In a predominantly male dominated industry, female chefs are still an exception, but women are moving to stake their claim as the best out there. We list out the eminent and the leading women chefs in India.

Madhumita Mohanta: She is one of the women executive chefs working in the Indian hospitality Industry. For her it has been almost two decades in the culinary business since she started her career as a hotel Management Trainee at The Park, Kolkata, and went on to work with premium brands like the Ritz-Carlton, Four Points by Sheraton and The Coleridge’s across countries like Singapore, Bahrain and Kuwait.She is a great fan of Bengali food. Currently, she is the Executive Chef at Ista, Hyderabad.

Madhu Krishnan: She is devoted to food and making it tempting and delicious is her character. It was because of her hard work that she was credited for her contribution to the West View, ITC Maurya, opened in 1996. She moved on to ITC Grand Maratha, where she again set the wave of delicious foods rolling. It was exciting as she brought in the new concept of fresh ingredients like scallops, cheeses, olives and Parma ham, which is lightly cooked and served. In those days, no one was seen doing it and people were not prepared to believe anything that was raw and uncooked; but she climbed up through it.

Veena Arora: Moving to India after her wedding in 1980, Veena Arora turned her passion of cooking into a grand career. She was an expert in Thai cuisines and did wonders with it. Since the start of her career, she was lucky enough to have worked with top names like The Lalit and later joined The Imperial Hotel as its consultant chef for their award-winning Southeast Asian restaurant, Spice Route. Veena Arora has won several awards including the National Tourism Award for Best Chef and Gourmet Guru Award given by the magazine, Food N Nightlife.

Tarla Dalal: Tarla Dalal was one of India's best known celebrity chefs. In 1966, she began her tryst with food and gave cookery classes at her home. She took simple cooking to great heights. She published more than 100 books selling over 3 million copies not only in India but rose to fame globally. Her cookery show 'cook it up with Tarla Dalal' was a hit during the 90s. In 2007, she published books on health series in much accordance with rising health issues and growing health consciousness. She was awarded the Padma Shri in 2007. She passed away in November 2013 at the age of 77.