Birthdays are always special, but growing up in Priya Mahadevan’s family of nine, birthdays came with an extra privilege: choosing the day’s menu.
“We always asked for this lentil and vegetable stew called sambar, with roasted potatoes and masala vadais, which are a fried lentil snack,” Mahadevan says. “Payasam (also called kheer) was the dessert of choice.”
A South India native, Mahadevan was raised on a diet of vegetarian, gluten-free, fresh foods from vendors who came directly to the house with a bounty of fruits and veggies. So when she moved to the area after a career as a political journalist, she pivoted back to what she knew best: food.
“I started my foodie career by writing a food blog that then led to catering orders and a stall at the City Market for six years,” she says. “I made South Indian food my business because Charlottesville did not have any representation of the food from my region.”
Now a caterer (“I pride myself on being the only purely vegetarian gig in town”), Mahadevan’s Suvaiyana line of artisan chutneys, soups, and spices are area must-eats. Below, we asked the cook to give us her own list of can’t-live-without foodie faves, from her cooking music of choice to what she reaches for at midnight.
Always on the bar: Port
Special-occasion drink: Champagne with Cassis
Energy source: My family and exercise
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs and English muffin
Lunch spot: Home, sweet home
Chinese restaurant order: Never had Chinese food in America!
Go-to comfort food: Rice and yogurt with sautéed spinach on the side (a typical south Indian meal)
Sandwich: Roasted zucchini, onion, and tomato with fresh mozzarella
Unusual ingredient: Asafetida
Healthy snack: Apple and peanut butter or Gruyére cheese
Unhealthy snack: Nachos
Condiment: Kerala black pepper
Chocolate: Marzipan
Grocery-store cookie: Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter cookies
Dessert: Payasam (Indian pudding)
Beer: Phoenix (Mauritian beer)
Ice cream flavor: Pistachio and coffee
Brunch—sweet or savory?: Both
Kitchen aroma: Cardamom and coriander
Always in the home fridge: Yogurt
Always in the pantry: Dal and rice
Bodo’s order: Everything bagel with jalapeño lime cream cheese
Salad bar toppings: Raisins and toasted almonds
Cut of meat: No meat for this vegetarian
Fish: No fish for this vegetarian
Vegetable: Brussels sprouts and zucchini
Midnight snack: Glass of milk
Knife: Tomodachi series
Appliance: Vitamix
Cookbooks: Ottolenghi’s Plenty and Plenty More
Mentors: My mom
Dream trip: Mediterranean cruise (hopefully not a dream for much longer)
Favorite food city: New Delhi
Cooking clothes: Soft and comfortable
Kitchen shoes: Flip-flops
Cooking music: Spanish Guitar/Sufi/Bollywood
First food memory: Dal rice mush oozing with aromatic ghee and a side of pappadum hand-fed by my dad
Best meal ever: Amethyst, a fusion restaurant in Chennai, India
