About Me

Hi !!! I am Manjula Bharath, call me manju or manu :).. How are you doing ? ..

What was I thinking ??? It took me 3 long years to put a about me page, may be I was not even thinking to put about me, But now it was high time I did. So here it goes … Everything about me and cook in me  🙂

Am a Home maker and a busy mom of a busy daughter who is turning 6 this year. I love my small and cute nuclear family , we are 3. I was born and bought up in Tamil nadu , chennai ( India) but our roots are Rajasthan. Cooking is my passion and I use my kitchen as a chemistry lab trying new things everyday.We are pure vegetarian jains who practice the ” Live , let live” Mantra .. By vegetarian I mean we don’t eat any meats or eggs but we do include dairy.  Born and raised in a marwari family and living in a place with high tamil culture , I have experienced both ends of the coin. We used to make south Indian cuisine at home too, so am familiar with both north Indian and south Indian cuisine. One way am lucky, you know why ? Coz it is helping me a lot to blog about both way of cuisines :).  We our multi lingual , we know Tamil, Hindi, Marwari ( Our mother tongue ,slightly different from hindi), English .. I understand few Indian languages, though can’t talk fluently.

So coming to the Blog , The idea of creating a blog came to me only after coming to the US. Yes we are residing in US currently. I didn’t even had a Facebook account ( personal account) , My brother created me a account when my hubby was in the US ( he came before us) and then slowly I got addicted to Fb and still couldn’t get over it. In mornings when I turn on the computer the first thing I do is check fb updates ( it is so addictive). Before starting a blog I used to share so many food pics in my personal fb account and my dear friends encouraged me to start a blog. I also Participated in a cooking contest organised by my husbands office, dessert was the theme so I planned to make an elaborate dessert table and won first place :)…

This is the only mobile pic I have of the dessert table:

I didn’t even know what “Blog” was, so I simply searched and found there are so many bloggers who do really good job already. After seeing many bloggers , I was tempted to start a blog of my own. Trust me I didn’t know any technical stuffs ( still I don’t know , am learning) , I didn’t even know how to write a title of the recipe but still I managed to continue with the help of my dear blogger friends.. This blog was born on 23 Sept 2012 after 2 years I got my own domain and it turned to www.desifiesta.com. Ok, many people ask me what is the meaning of  “Desi Fiesta ” ? .. so here goes the answer – Actually while thinking about naming this blog I thought as this blog is going to be a mixture of both desi and pardeshi cuisine ( international dishes) , there should be a fusion name and I came up with this name Desi Fiesta.. Desi means very Indian and Fiesta means Carnival or festival.This blog has given me immense pleasure and happiness which words can’t explain.. I have won so so so so many blog giveaways conducted by my fellow bloggers, thanks to them for bring the enthu in me.. Got the name of “Thali queen” and “Cookie Queen” from my blogger friends , coz I blogged all Indian state thali for a marathon and also baked some very creative cookies like Match stick cookies, ukele cookie, watermelon shaped cookie etc ..

I  had done Home science with computer science in my higher secondary, many ask me is there any course exist like home science. Yes there is a proper course in your higher secondary , if you are going for a catering career it is the best. So I have learn’t most of the basic recipe’s from home made sweets to savories, sauce to jams,  Cakes to pasteries , we almost learned all the techniques from there. There are so many lovely memories of school , mainly the home science lab where we use to cook all yummy stuffs and enjoy. We used to organize canteen for whole school which was the fun part. If you are from tamil nadu you will knowing the great chef Damodaran sir, he was are invigilator for board exam, he tasted all the food I cooked for the exam and said my biryani “kalakkala irruku” ( tastes too gud) 🙂 this means a lot for me to get a appreciations from the great chef..  My friends always tell me I am in the right place , blogging and following my Passion.

This Blog has seen my innovations , disasters and thumbs ups and it is very close to my heart . Most of the recipes are developed from my school knowledge, my mom who keeps her updated with the new trendy recipes.. She is the only source for my authentic rajasthani recipes, My masi ( mom’s sister) is a amazing cook too , she is specialized in making south Indian delicacies . I love her kara kuzhambu , puttu, idiyyapam, pillowy soft idli’s, adai’s and the list never ends. My grand Mom ( mom’s mom) was a wonderful cook too 🙂 she is no more , we miss her a lot. After marriage I did learn few different methods of making the same dishes from mother in law. My mom and my masi are my inspirations ..I love cooking food for my family and my daughter and H never fails to encourage me. They are QC testers of this blog.

I had very little knowledge about food photography started my photography with sony cyber shot  ( point and shoot ). When started i was taking the pic with flash on , then i started taking pics under the tube light, then I started cooking early just to take the picture in the day light. I  had  elevated  step by step, this all growth happen with a point and shoot cam in hand.  After 2 years of blogging one fine day my H surprised me by gifting me my first Dslr.. I was so excited when my first pic got accepted by foodgawker , guess what ?? the picture was not taken in a dslr, people have a misconception that only dslr pics are accepted by FG but am a proof , I have about 70+  pics of mine accepted by food gawker..I feel so happy every time a picture is accepted, do chk my gallery . I am still learning when it comes to photography, I love to photograph anything and everything 🙂 To share my random clicks I recently created a photography page “Manu’s Shutter Up”. I own a Nikon d7000 , started with 50 mm lens and Now using 35 mm, I do have a kit lens too. . I take all my pictures with hand and no tripod, I have a big wishlist of camera gadgets to buy.. Hope my santa clause ( my hubby :P) gets me 🙂 …

My growth in Photography, have a long way to go still ..

This blog was started solely for repository purpose and also to tickle my brains creativity to develop new recipes…But when I heard from my readers that they love all my recipes and it is so helpful in knowing new innovative recipes, I was flying in cloud nine 🙂 .. So glad that this blog is helping others. I respect my readers and my fellow bloggers a lot , do leave your valuable suggestions and comments. I do read all the comments posted by my readers , I surely try my best to reply back when ever time permits. Do you have a traditional recipe and want me to share it in my blog , do send me your recipes, at Manjulabharathkumar@gmail.com , I would be happy to learn a new recipe from you too. The recipes in this blog are inspired by my family cooking, friends who share recipes, the neighbors who are from different parts of India, cook booksssss which I own and some are inspired by bloggers which is given proper credit back or link back.

So this was all about me , my cooking and my blog.. Hope you enjoyed reading. Do visit Desifiesta.com again to find a new recipe developed in my kitchen.

You can keep in touch with me through Facebook or Google+. Do share your comments,suggestion or if you want any of my recipes or photograph featured in your websites or magazines in the contact me form

Do visit Desi fiesta again n again n again , if you like my recipes …

Cheers,

Manjula Bharath