As a chef of over a decade, showing love and connection through food defines me. As a new mom, exploring food with my son and husband brings me the greatest happiness. These two worlds have been colliding as I have been working to put together a family recipe book to hold our family’s food history. Pappu Podi is a spice mix we use on a regular basis at home. Most commonly on Dosa in the morning, but it has innumerable applications. My husband, Sathya, is from Tamil Nadu - a state in Southern India. As I have come to learn since we have been together, Southern Indian food, specifically, can be a bit of a challenge to find in the states. Both in restaurants and ingredients for home. Working with Josu to create a beautiful product that not only gives representation to my son’s heritage, but also shares a big piece of our life at home with you all has brought me so much pride. Fun fact: our son’s nickname is Pappu - a term from my husband’s family language Telugu, an endearing way to call him ‘lentil’.