THE INTERVIEW
BY ETHEL HAMMER
Mandvi in Kutch, a small state in west India,
near Gujarat
BORN:
RESIDES:
Houston
Bachelor’s degree in microbiology, Gujarat
University, Ahmedabad, India (1978-1981);
medical technology diploma, Northern
Alberta Institute of Technology, Edmonton
and Toronto, Canada (1983-1984)
Self-taught; learned to cook using her
mother’s family recipes. Worked part-time
in pastry section at Café Annie, Houston
(1999-2001)
EDUCATION:
LEARNED
THE TRADE:
Made and sold cilantro, peach and
tamarind chutneys to Whole Foods Market
in Houston and Austin, Texas (1995-1999);
Indika voted Best Indian Restaurant,
Houston Press (2001-2006, 2008-2009);
work praised in Bon Appétit, Food & Wine,
Houston Business Journal, The Houston
Home Journal, Houston Press, The New York
Times and The Wall Street Journal; taught
two-day seminar in Houston on Indian food
to heads of culinary departments of The
Art Institutes (2009); panel participant, 10th
Annual Women in Leadership Conference,
Rice University, Houston (2010)
AWARDS,
ACHIEVEMENTS
AND ACCOLADES:
hen Anita Jaisinghani took Houston by storm in
2001 with the opening of Indika, more than a few
people had to wonder where this woman, who had
two children and was a self-taught cook, got the chutzpah to
open an Indian restaurant with her own take on classical Indian
recipes in a town renowned for its love of steaks, barbecue and
Tex-Mex. But Jaisinghani had unconditional emotional support
from her family. “My mother made me believe that I was the most
beautiful person in the world,” she says. “That ingrained belief in
you is the foundation of confidence.”
W
After abandoning her career as a microbiologist and following
a 22-month stint working part time in the pastry department in
Houston’s esteemed Café Annie, Jaisinghani set out to do things her
way, while never losing sight of the importance of being a mom.
“Beauty is important. You eat with your eyes,” says Jaisinghani,
whose mother was a painter and whose dishes have a luscious
edge. Her eggplants are stuffed with cashews and creamy
paneer, served with delicately poised mustard potatoes and tasty
green masala sauce. Another eggplant still life is heroically stuffed
with diced eggplant and mushrooms, then drizzled with green
cilantro chutney, dark-brown tamarind chutney and white cumin
sauce, creating an edible painting in three dimensions worthy of
an abstract expressionist.
And the beauty never stops. Her lamb chops are rosy, and her
white cream cheese tart with blueberries and blood-red beet
and raspberry sauce is puddled with shades of red, from maroon
to magenta.
Beyond that, reviewers cannot stop raving about the tastes
at Indika. From the “seductive blend of American ingredients
and Indian spices” praised by Gourmet to “the warm flavors of
dumpling-like potato-corn samosas with intense tamarind-fig
chutney,” noted by The New York Times, Indika has been voted
Houston’s Best Indian Restaurant for eight of the last nine years by
Houston Press.
