Chef Daamu and Malika Badrinath were her inspirations in more ways than one. “I aspire to write and publish my own cook book just like them and open a restaurant of my own soon,” she says.

Suja began experimenting with cooking at home, and after some push from her family, she opened a home based cafeteria in her own apartment, serving simple dishes like, rolls and sandwiches, which impressed the public. “The cafeteria was completely based on my creativity, it gave me good response and that made me open two more cafeterias in the city today!” beams Suja who currently works as a chef in a restaurant at Anna Nagar.

This chef has many innovative ideas and says that her target audience is children. “People today think cooking is a boring activity, I want to change the mindset of people by showing them that easy and simple dishes can be made using home-based ingredients, I mainly would like to target kids at every home,” she shares.

Suja has now come up with an interesting concept called Oru Uru Oru Unnavu, this concept mainly aims at bringing back the authentic food of Madras that has been long forgotten. “I will be introducing our traditional items like molakai bajji, masala vadais, but with a twist!” she adds.

But, what is her take on fusion of cuisines? “Fusion is a great idea; it gives lot of space for creativity, I remember seeing people in other coutries eat dosais as vegetable rolls with ketchup...it looked and tasted delicious,” she narrates. “I love to cook sea food in fusion style and crab gravy is my favourite pick from my kitchen diaries.”

For all aspiring chefs, Suja says, “There are great opportunities for youngsters today. Reality shows are a good platform to bring out fresh talent. They also help viewers understand the new trends and style in cooking.”