From Wheel Chair to CatWalk……..Chef Ruchika Sharma

“The key is time management and never giving up”

Hers is not a fairytale; it is not a regular tale either. From the wheelchair to the catwalk, Celebrity Chef Ruchika Sharma’s story is one of courage, determination, and perseverance. The celebrity chef, who was wheelchair-bound for a year, not only bounced back on her feet but also landed straight on the ramp – and won beauty pageants like Mrs. South Asia International 2014 and Mrs. India Popular 2013 – all with a five-inch screw in her leg. Those who know Ruchika vouch for her positive and never-say-die attitude and those who don’t will know more about this gutsy woman soon.

Women shine got in a conversation with her to know how she manages to juggle being a chef, an entrepreneur who runs two culinary institutes teaches livelihood practices and counsels underprivileged women associated with Being Women, holds cooking workshops at schools and corporates, and raising an eight-year-old son as well – Ruchika says the key is time management and lessons she learned from her mother – never give up. Read on to know about her passion for food and cooking.

1. Is there a chef you admire the most? Who and why?
   I admire my mom. She is a fantastic chef and she was a part of my culinary journey. She helped me in setting up my culinary school in India so I admire her.
2. How do you describe your style of cooking?
   My style of cooking depends on the availability of ingredients. It keeps changing if I am surrounded by fancy ingredients, then it’s a different style of cooking, cooking very fancy but I believe in cooking with the available ingredients that are basics and making a dish you know heartful or soulful dish with the available ingredients because wherever we go you don’t need to know you get all the required ingredients. So, cooking with the available ingredients and making the dish tasty in those circumstances is the creativity of a chef. That’s what I believe in.
3. Is there a secret ingredient that you love to cook with?
   Oh my goodness I have so many secret ingredients. When I keep researching I read a lot so I work on it. Depends again on the recipe to recipe. If I am cooking a Hyderabadi Biryani then I use secret potli masala. Similarly, I have a few secrets about some recipes when I am cooking secret ingredients changes with the recipes I cook and the cuisines I cook.
4. What is Chef Ruchika’s favourite meal?

My favourite meal could be you know either the khichdi with some stuffed vegetables and yogurt sauce on the side or dal chawal and typical South Indian vadi aaloo and avakai pachadi because I grew up in South India so my taste buds always crave for South Indian avai pickle and badi aaloo.

5. Tell us about a very challenging situation you have faced in your career and how
   you handled it?
   As the society is male dominant and so is my Industry, so sometimes when I go to various shows I am the only female. But definitely when a woman is cooking commercially and professionally so the attitude of people is different. It was a challenging time for me in my career.
6. If you could invite any three people for dinner, who would they be and why?
   First will be Madam Vice President Kamala Haris because she has Indian roots as well as Jamaican roots and I love Jamaican jerk chicken as well as tandoori chicken and South Indian dosa and the second person I would be inviting and cooking for will be our Prime Minister Narendra Modi I mean he is a vegetarian and being a Gujarati, I mean my mom is Gujarati I would love to make some Gujarati dishes for her and the third person would be you know is my dad.
7. Do you have any pet peeves when it comes to food?
   For me, discipline is the most important thing, and organizing the ingredients before you cook and having a positive atmosphere is very important in the kitchen. If I am working with someone or cooking with someone and if somebody is in a bad mood or very very rude in the kitchen I will not want to cook with them. So for me when I am cooking, I need to have a positive atmosphere and a good environment otherwise, it puts me off.
8. What is an example of a springtime menu you would prepare for WomenShine
   readers?
   Spring is my favourite season and I would love to cook a complete meal. I may start with candied carrots and that’s a little sweet side version of cooking carrots and you get different varieties of carrots here so that would be amazing to cook and white wine sangria, if my guests are alcoholic and roasted broccoli and maybe some soup cream and maybe some garlic lamb chops and to end it may be a nice dessert with strawberries or maybe a strawberry souffle or a nice cake with strawberry topping and whipped cream and some nice sriracha honey Salmon and some nice vegetarian quinoa.
9. Interview by Aditi Gupta