Ep# 38 Maya Kaimal on Being Brown and Bold Podcast with Jes Thomas

Being Brown and Bold

Maya Kaimal is an entrepreneur & Cook book author who has been an early inspiration for the South Asian culinary field in the US. Raised in Boston then Boulder, Maya’s passion for food and cooking blossomed at a young age. From watching Julia Child’s The French Chef with her mother, Lorraine, to tasting her father Chandran’s vibrant South Indian dishes, Maya’s interest in food was piqued. Her curiosity in spice, taste and cooking developed during trips to her father’s home in Kerala as Maya learned to cook with her Aunty Kamala. Maya worked at various magazines in New York and she saw an extraordinary gap between what she grew up eating and what the western palate thought Indian food was. One realization and three cookbooks later, Maya’s desire to educate and create hasn’t stopped. She is now dedicated to making Indian food that’s accessible to Americans, but true to her roots. In 2003, Maya launched her namesake company with her husband, Guy Lawson, out of their Brooklyn apartment after seeing a lack of quality Indian products in grocery stores. With her collection of family recipes, she works to create convenient Indian food that tasted as good as homemade. Maya lives in Upstate New York with her husband, twin daughters, and their noisy dog Instagram: @mayakaimal Website: https://www.mayakaimal.com/ To follow Jes, go to IG @jessoulfood