Karnataka woman documents more than 250 traditional recipes through TRUE FOOD initiative
Visista, 20, uses her family farm's website to preserve forgotten dishes and indigenous cooking techniques.
A 20-year-old woman from Karnataka, Visista, has documented more than 250 traditional recipes through her initiative, TRUE FOOD, according to the Times of India. Based at the Aikanthika farm in central Karnataka, the project aims to bring forgotten dishes and age-old cooking techniques back into the food world.
Visista, who never attended a conventional school, followed a self-directed learning approach called Swashikshan. She learned through books, the internet, and conversations with her parents, Kruthii and Raghava, after starting to cook beside her grandmother, Lakshmi, at age four.
The collection includes recipes inherited from her family as well as dishes observed in rural areas and tribal villages. Visista and her father decided to make the collection accessible by creating a recipe section on the Aikanthika farm website.
The initiative focuses on replacing refined ingredients like white flour and refined sugar with traditional alternatives such as jaggery, unrefined oils, and freshly milled whole grains. Visista experiments with various items, including sourdough bread and jolada rotti, a traditional Karnataka flatbread made using sorghum.
Visista prepares each dish herself to check the taste and texture before recording it. She hopes to continue expanding her collection by researching recipes from more regions and cuisines in the future.