Celebrating India through ingredient-first culinary experiences

For Chef Smriti Iyer every single thing you put in a dish has a story behind it. Every time you make a menu it is like going on a trip all around India without even leaving your seat at the table. Smriti Iyer used to be an architect. Now she is a chef and a baker and she teaches people about food and she has her own business. Smriti Iyer has made a name for herself in the food world in India by making delicious Modern Indian Vegetarian food using ingredients from parts of the country and adding her own special touch.

At the centre of what Smriti Iyer does is Ananth India, a place where people can go to learn about the different foods, from India. They do this by having food events, private dinners and creating menus for restaurants. Smriti says “Ananth India means it never ends.” She thinks Indian food is like that too. Every part of the country and every time of year has its special foods. Even the ingredients they use are special. Smriti wants to learn about all these things and create food experiences that feel like they are, for you and are modern.

She started with architecture. Then moved to food. Architecture taught her how to think about structure and balance and all the small details. She says that cooking allowed her to use ingredients to express these ideas of using buildings.

Smriti was born in Delhi. She grew up in Delhi too. Her family is from Tamil and Malayali backgrounds. She went to school in Gujarat. So, she was around different types of food when she was growing up. This helped her understand that there are types of food, in India. Smriti thinks that the food we eat is connected to the place we live and the people we know and the things we remember.

“I don’t begin with a recipe,” she says. “I begin with an ingredient. I want to understand where it comes from, how people use it, what memories it carries and how I can interpret it differently while still respecting its identity.”

Having grown up vegetarian, Smriti has never seen vegetarian cuisine as restrictive. “I’ve always believed that if ingredients are respected and flavours are paired thoughtfully, whether a dish is vegetarian or not becomes irrelevant,” she says.

“For me, every menu is a way of putting India on a plate,” she says. “Sometimes a single course carries influences from multiple regions because that’s how memories work—they overlap, evolve and create something entirely new.”

Smriti’s culinary journey formally began in 2014 with Smriti’s Special, initially launched as a Facebook page where she documented desserts, breads, beverages and experimental recipes. What began as a creative outlet eventually evolved into workshops, a culinary studio in 2017 and an online baking and pastry school. Today, Smriti’s Special offers more than 50 professionally recorded courses focused on baking science, flavour development and technical precision.

“Teaching has always been as rewarding as cooking,” she says. “I enjoy helping people understand not just how recipes work but why they work.”

Her tasting menus often function as edible travel journals. From a personal interpretation of a ten-course Palakkad menu to Agra Beyond Taj, inspired by the culinary heritage of Braj, Rajasthani Diaries, a six-course tea experience, and an ice cream and sorbet tasting menu, each experience combines research with creative storytelling.

“Travel has taught me to observe before I interpret,” Smriti says. “Every region has techniques, ingredients and traditions that deserve to be understood before they’re reimagined.”

Today, her work spans restaurant consultancy, exclusive dinners, FMCG collaborations, culinary launches and baking education, moving between artisan breads, fermented doughs, pastry, regional cuisine and experimental vegetarian tasting menus.

Despite the variety of her projects one idea stays the same. “Food should be thoughtful but it should also be fun “ she says. “Evolution is a thing. The more we stay curious, about ingredients the exciting Indian cuisine becomes.” Ultimately Smriti feels her work is not so much about showing her creativity as it is about honouring the amazing food culture of India. “India has already done the work by giving us amazing ingredients, traditions and stories “ she says. “I’m just trying to put those stories in ways that make people look at them in a new way—and maybe leave the table a little more interested, than when they came.”