Gutless foodie: Natasha Diddee’s culinary journey

You may have heard of people living to eat but have you heard about food being someone’s religion? Meet Natasha Diddee, a 44-year-old culinary expert from Maharashtra, who believes being around food is prayer for her. “I was once in a temple — I’m not religious but went along with my mother — I was just standing around when the pujari asked me why I’m not praying. I asked him how I should pray and he was taken aback!” narrates Natasha. 

She understood the meaning of prayer one day while she was cooking: she left her slippers outside the kitchen like one would outside a temple. This arrested her sense of feel since her feet were touching the ground. Then, she saw what she was cooking, like one would see the deity and this arrested her sense of sight. The smell of the food, similar to the smell of incense sticks in a temple, captured her olfactory senses. Hearing the frying and clanging of vessels awoke her sense of hearing, like that of temple bells. And finally, relishing the dishes she made like how a devotee consumes prasad, arrested her taste. “If this isn’t prayer, and food isn’t my religion, then what is?” 

At the age of 38, Natasha was afflicted with a serious illness, which caused her stomach to be surgically removed. It may have cost her the feeling of hunger but it earned her the title ‘Gutless Foodie,’ which she thinks of as a blessing in disguise. Her Instagram handle that goes by this name is a sensation — each day, she posts recipes of sumptuous home-cooked food, titillating one’s eyesight and hunger pangs. “I still don’t understand why I don’t have a stomach, so I eat out of greed and necessity. When I’m in discomfort and pain, I cook — in fact, a couple of days ago I made a traditional Kerala meal because of my undying obsession with South Indian food,” smiles this rookie author, who brought out a fiction novel through a publishing house based out of Chennai. 

The ingredients she cooks with are fresh because she believes that most of the produce available in India has multiple benefits. “I love using curry leaves, mustard and coconut in almost everything I cook — southern food is so special to me that I’ve flown to Kerala and Chennai just to eat!” grins Diddee adding, “Indian food is sensible because it encourages the use of various fats and oils because each one has a plus point and they give out various flavours. These are not the real culprits, sugar is. Cut out simple carbohydrates like potato, rice, white flour, etc. and you’ll see what a huge difference it makes to your life,” says the chef, stating that her partner lost nearly 18 kg just following this diet. “And he’s absolutely healthy and feels lighter.” 

As a child, Natasha was made to attend a lot of classes like candle-making and gift-wrapping but one hobby that stuck to her was cooking. “I learnt how to cook from my mother and maid; I would even blackmail the cook in my granny’s house in Pune for recipes — the dal he would make was to die for! Food is my escape; it’s even my drug. I’m so grateful for what I went through and where I am — all the credit goes to my extremely supportive family,” she concludes.