Beyond the butter chicken: One woman's craving creates jobs for South Asian housewives

When 35-year-old banker Nidhi Tomer Chaudhary was pregnant with her second child, she wasn't having second trimester cravings of ice cream and pickles. Instead, she began longing for the home-cooked Rajasthani food from her childhood. 

The problem? She couldn't find anywhere in Metro Vancouver that served dishes from the Indian state of Rajasthan like moongdal pakoda — fresh mung beans and lentils made into fritters — or the five-lentil stew dal baati choorma.

Even after she delivered a healthy baby girl, the cravings didn't go away. So the cravings birthed an idea, and Tomer Chaudhary added another title to her resume: owner of the Rajasthani-style restaurant Tatta Chulha. 

While her initial goal was to fill a niche in the market, Tomer Chaudhary soon found her restaurant was also a way to empower women in the South Asian community, who are often relegated to traditional gender roles, and help newcomers to the country unable to find work.

She recalls struggling to find a chef capable of cooking the unique cuisine, then realizing she was going about it the wrong way.

"Then the idea clicked: let's hire some housewives," she said.

Tomer Chaudhary opened the restaurant on Vancouver's bustling East Broadway amid the pandemic in Februrary 2021. 

When you enter the room adorned with art and decor from Rajasthan, the sounds of traffic and construction are replaced by soft, yet upbeat, folk music from the region. 

And if you listen carefully, you might also hear the giggles of the all-female kitchen staff — who range in age from 30 to 65 — through the slightly ajar kitchen door. 

Watch | A sneak peek at the culinary creations of Tatta Chulha

A look inside the kitchen at Vancouver restaurant Tatta Chulha

3 years ago

Duration 0:33

A pregnancy craving for a B.C. woman's childhood food back home in Rajasthan, India, turned into a saving grace for South Asian housewives in search of work.

Many South Asian women are experienced cooks in their own right, regularly serving up daily meals in multi-generational households, Tomer Chaudhary said. In India, many women wake up hours before everyone else to prepare food for family.

"You know how South Asian females are? They do selfless cooking," she said.

Tomer Chaudhary's first hire was 30-year-old Dharmistha Gabani, who moved to Canada in 2021 from Gujarat, India, where she was a teacher.

Although Gabani doesn't have formal training as a chef, cooking came naturally to her. Her mother taught her at the age of 15 during a time when she was sick.

Now she's one of several South Asian women in charge of serving up the tasty dishes at Tatta Chulha — which means "hot clay stove" in Hindi and Punjabi — where the food is focused on lentils, vegetables and ground spices, and can be served in thalis, or mixed platters.

Gabani said she enjoys the sense of independence her job has given her.

"I'm not dependent on my husband and my family in-laws [now]. I'm helping them because I'm making money [in] my own way," she said as she stirred a pot in the kitchen.

Despite a slow start to business due to the pandemic, Tomer Chaudhary is thrilled she can show Vancouverites there's much more to Indian cooking than butter chicken and masala dosas — and she's proud that she's been able to empower women along the way.

"Let's have a woman army, we can win anything ... that's what we are doing here," she said.