Nalini Mehta of Route to India & Yoga Pops!
Nalini started teaching Ayurvedic cooking 18 years ago. She views food and the cooking process as a means to nurture the mind, body, and soul.
Nalili began as a culinary instructor at the Natural Gourmet Institute for Food and Health while she still worked in the fashion industry, buying and merchandising for Macy's, Saks Fifth Avenue and product development and sourcing for Target Corporations. Moonlighting in the food world, she did everything from catering private events, cooking at gourmet stores in New York as well as the kitchens of Candle Cafe and Hampton Chutney. She was a culinary instructor at the Whole Foods Culinary Center, the Institute of Culinary Education and The NY Open Center.
“I view life as a running stream of water. It will come across pebbles, rocks, and boulders along the way—but it doesn’t let anything stop it from flowing. It either flows over it or turns alongside or beats over the rock and makes an imprint on it. So, challenges haven’t stopped me in moving forward with passion and gusto.”
In 2010, Nalini moved to San Francisco and started her culinary school, Route To India, with culinary programs rooted in her knowledge and experience of Indian culture. She organized culinary trips to India and offered weekend yoga culinary retreats in Sonoma CA and the Art Of Living Retreat Center in Boone NC.
Nalini has been a speaker at a range of institutions including San Francisco Asian Art Museum, Rubin Museum of Art, Princeton University, Baruch College and the United Nations. Most recently, Nalini was the recipient of the James Beard Foundation Women In Culinary Leadership Grant program.
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