Take a cooking class for a cuisine you're unfamiliar with.

“I took a high-end Chinese dumpling class with individual attention. Then, our beloved ayi (a local domestic helper assigned to your family) taught me her style, which was more like cooking hip to hip with Grandma—no measuring, no reasoning, no explanation. My third attempt was through an ex-pat class with a large group whereby we were struggling all together as we flattened, filled, pinched, and fried to perfection. I pulled all these lessons together and was able to confidently make my own.”

“On Koh Lanta in Thailand, we cooked in an outdoor kitchen and plucked pods from a nearby tamarin tree for pad thai. Do you think that imported and preserved tamarin taste better or worse than freshly plucked from a garden? It cannot be replicated!”

“Before we started cooking, we first visited a local South Asian market where we learned about staples of South Asian cuisine. We then walked back to Monisha’s home where she shared more about herself and her career with us, as well as what gives certain dishes its names. Then the cooking began: chicken tandoori wings, paratha, basmati rice and more. The food was so much simpler than I thought it would be, and yet the flavor was incredible.”