About
Chef In You is a team of 2. The Wife (D) and the Husband (K). The complete process behind the scenes (and in front) starts right from scratch – researching ingredients, buying organic foods, cooking a palatable meal, taste testing, presenting, making it come alive (photography), writing about the experience, making the ‘bites’ into ‘bytes’ with smooth transition and most importantly (in K’s opinion) eating – where these chores are divided between D and K each doing their thing in order to bring it to your table. Needless to say (yet can’t insist enough!), each and every recipe is tried and tested in our kitchen.
Chef In You? What’s with the name?
We feel Cooking is an art – something that can be done by anyone. Some have flare for it, while others attain it with practice and patience. At the end, it is achievable by all and to cook something new or exotic, one need not go to a culinary school or become a Chef. In our humble opinion, with proper guidance and correct step by step instructions, which is what this blog is all about, we feel that we can bring out the Chef In You. Hence the name.
Chef In You- How did it happen?
ChefInYou is a garden.Like any kitchen garden, the site did not grow in a day. There is a small story behind this. Umm…A little flashback here….
“D” had been blogging for a while at http://culinarybazaar.blogspot.com. Soon readers started taking an upturn and customization started becoming a real pain in the *** . She also couldn’t tolerate her geeky husband K’s nagging ( now wait..a..minute..!! isn’t that the wives job by the way?) to move to a separate domain. So they planned, designed the layout and started putting something together. But then they found that their life itself was quite a handful. So her dream of her own domain remained just that – a dream, for a long time.
Time passed by… days turning into weeks and weeks into months much to the chagrin of D’s blogging buddies – you know who you are 
So D and K once again decided to work towards the dream but this time, they ’smartly’ (cough!)thought they would make someone else make their dream come true. Hire a gardener to grow their garden, so to speak. But the outsource route was a bigger pain in the *** than the customization. Things fell apart faster than they started - lack of communication, incomplete functionality and the layout becoming frightful by the day- in short a complete disaster!
That’s when D and K decided enough is enough and took everything into their own hands. They started everything anew and decided to grow their garden themselves. So this garden is what you see in front of you as Chefinyou. Everything you see – the concept, the design, the code and the content (the food, i.e) of this website – is 100% organically homegrown by the duo.
Whats different about this blog?
Like any apron clad cook, D started out with a recipe here and a recipe there to enhance her repertoire. That was not as simple as it sounds
- a supposedly golden crust would turn out black,
-a clear soup would become a gravy (or should I quote “RRay” and say “stoup”? ) and
- a so called delicious dish would most often grace the kitchen sink.
It happened often enough and D’s frustration knew no bounds since there was no easy way to know where and what went wrong! Hence D felt it would help someone like her, to know, the transition of the dish from the start to finish. Every recipe you see here – be it simple or difficult, is naked with respect to the process that it undergoes and which we believe will help you in your experiments. Our final picture of a recipe will surely not be a far cry to yours when you make it in your kitchen – you know how the dish is supposed to look at every step with the help of the pictures and hopefully it would help to bring out the Chef in you 
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What recipes can we expect from here?
This blog is an Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian site. Sounds very fancy shmancy – but it just means that all recipes will be based on a diet consisting of Vegetables, Grains, Dairy including Eggs. So all you enthusiastic foodies searching our site for “chicken soup”,”chicken curry”, “rabbit recipes”, “rabit stew”,”fish”,”Beef Bourguignon”,”snapper” , so on and forth – we have to say, “sorry to disappoint you”. Our tag line in the header, we assumed, spoke for us! Guess,w e assume too much sometimes! Quick look at what to expect -
- Healthy Vegetarian Recipes
- Vegan Recipes
- Baked Goods
- Eggless Baking
- Gluten Free Recipes
- Wholegrain Recipes
- Quick Under 15 minute recipes
….and few more categories in between (low fat, kid friendly, Holiday/Festival recipes – you know the usual predictable stuff!!!!).
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s)
1. So do you mean to say that all my recipes will come out perfectly if I follow your instructions?
The blog DOES NOT guarantee that you will get all the recipes right. But it would definitely help you find out where you went wrong which I personally think is half the battle won!
Then of course you always have my e-mail in case you have a doubt with the recipes - or if all you want to do is to vent out about the outcome!!
2. You don’t seem to mention the amount of salt in many of your recipes. I love my food hot – it doesn’t seem that spicy either! What’s with your taste buds?
Most of the recipes have our taste buds in mind. Our level of salt or spice in a recipe will obviously be less/more to many others. Hence I would appreciate it if you could use this blog as a guideline to get inspired,enlightened and curious – just the way many others did for me Use your discretion and your preferences when it comes to seasonings used in the recipes here
3. Do you do Product Promotions?
The idea of this blog is NOT to promote products unrelated to food, or promoting places/foods which I have personally not used. Whatever product I talk about has been used personally by me and which I vouch for from my experience.
4. What about Photography? What techniques or tools do you use to take pictures?
The pictures used in Chef In You has been taken by me ( hence copyrighted) and my aim is to present pictures which are as close and real to food as possible. I use a Cannon Rebel XT to take my pictures.
- I do NOT use heavy processing or photo shop elements to morph my food pictures and 100% of the pictures (unless otherwise mentioned) are kept as real as possible.
- I do not own any studio or photo props (shucks! That really sucks!) and the pictures are taken in natural light most of the time with only plates and paper napkins as additional props. Occasionally I may use artificial bright lighting in case of improper natural light.
5. There are quite a ‘She did that’, ‘He said that’ at Chef In You. So are you opinionated?
Not Really. Well not all the time. Rants at Chef In You are 100% mine and done to occasionally blow of steam or to seek assurance of specific opinions from you readers without any ulterior motives. I do not do that to hurt or ridicule anyone – its mostly a way to lessen my anguish about instances when others do the same to me.
6.What about the recipes? Where do you get them along with all that food related information?
Some recipes are the ones “borrowed” from family, friends and few friendly strangers. Some others have been adapted from Experts, Chefs and other media like Books, TV, Internet etc while few others are the ones when “Food Fairy” suddenly zips and puts ideas on my head! So are the food related information. They are shared in the hope that such knowledge would prove to be as useful to you as it was to me. Since no one is perfect, I might be fallible with few opinions and I would appreciate it if you could point it out politely and without being judgmental.
7.Commenting Policy at Chef In You
Feedback/comments are one of the most appreciated and highly welcomed aspects, I look forward to. I do not insist that all your comments be only praises and appreciation of the post or me ( although I of course do not mind it at all ) but I do mind if your criticism is not a constructive one and does not follow ethics of decency or politeness. In that case, I will surely choose to ignore and delete your comment or answer back in a similar fashion depending on my mindset at that particular moment.
8. Do you do Recipe Requests?
Of course! I believe that one learns more by sharing and making recipes you want helps a lot in honing my own knowledge set. Do drop in a line with your recipe requests and I will do them as and when humanly possible by me . Please keep in mind that this is a Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian site ( that means I make recipes which consists of a diet of vegetables,grains,dairy products as well as eggs. …). No meat or sea food based recipe pls. Although I would love to convert a meat based one to without
Do you have questions for me? Shoot it out and I will answer it as soon as possible. Hope your stay at Chefinyou is delightful to all your senses. Your positive feedback is always welcome.
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Like what you see?
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Categories
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Back to Basics
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Baking
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Chocolate
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Eggless Baking
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Entertaining
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Events
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Favourites
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Festival/Holiday Recipes
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Gluten Free
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Healthy Vegetarian Recipes
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Kid Friendly Recipes
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Low Calorie
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My Kitchen to yours
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Pumpkin Recipes
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Rants and Musings
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Recipes By Cuisine
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Recipes under 15 min
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Recipes with Cheese
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Vegan Recipes
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Vegetarian Menu
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Wholegrain Recipes
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Want to host A.W.E.D? - drop me a line
Hey Guys,
you got such a nice recipes. Some are very creative. Very nice site. I now decide to visit often and cook atleast one of urs once a week.
Thanks for sharing with everyone.
Sudha
Hi DK, I visited your site for the first time today and i must say everything was so impressive and good looking… I am so happy that i stopped by your site and went through the recipes…
Its a really great job that you guys have put forth… Congrats and keep going….
Thank you so much Remya. Means a lot to us
–DK
Hi DK, its me again Aditi,
.
Today again I had some time on hand and for some reason whenever I have some time on hand I have to browse your website it just makes me feel nice…I don’t know why or how, I don’t even know how to describe that particular feeling, almost like how one feels when one enters one’s mom’s kitchen and the feeling you get just thinking about it, its not just the food, but the whole experience of that moment where mom is cooking, the smells, the aroma, the talks..well that is how I feel when I am reading your posts
After reading this post I now totally understand why I get that feeling. You have this wonderful garden which you treat not just as yours but for the community….”Come not only visit the garden but try doing it yourself too”. My mom says “that food is the best way to create cheer and by the way it does not have to be fancy”. I have been a die hard follower of that mantra ever since I got married. I get the same exact feeling, of you encouraging your readers, followers to enjoy the cooking experience.
So kudos to the DK team and keep doing whatever you are doing because let me assure you its working!!
TC, Aditi
This is overwhelmingly generous and kind of you. Precious words indeed
–DK
I am so happy to have found your great blog
hey bhuvaneshwari again. actually i want to share with you some of my flashback too.
honestly speaking i don’t know how to start or rather where to start… one fine day i was in search for really interesting dishes and it led me to your website. 
i must thank the search engine for that as i have landed on the right place, on the hands of a good chef or should i say the fingertips of a good chef, as you whip up some reallllllllllllly interesting mouth watering dishes. Also i would like to remind of the popular tamil saying one who plants the tree would water it… 
that goes in the translated version 
so enjoy the great work.. indeed we as browsers 
regular visitors of this website are enjoying the work that reflects in front of our eyes, as well as the story behing every recipe of your. 
kudos to the two of you for keeping up the good work. My hearty wishes for you two to continue this. bye for now 
Bhuvaneshwari, you literally made our day
We couldnt have asked for more..Thank you so much for giving us such a generous feedback. Appreciate it so much 
–DK
Hi DK, You have a great website design and layout along with mouth watering pictures. In the past I have almost been a baking failure. I am looking forward to bake some of your baked dishes in hopes of learning to bake
.
Thank you so much Shradha.
I am sure you will do a great job at Baking. Don’t hesitate to drop me a line in case of any doubt and I would be glad to help. Any number of questions are welcome 
–DK
Hey Anshika – thanks a bunch for your kind words
We appreciate it — DK
Many people consider eggs non-veg, more so in a country called India.
Hi “xxxxxxx” (!!) Many ppl consider fish as vegetarian in many other parts of the world and I am not going to call them wrong either. What ppl consider changes from place to place but dictionary remains constant everywhere. I am making life easier for me by keeping it that way!–DK
your ven pongal pic has been copied here…http://www.radhaskitchenaroma.com/2009/03/ven-pongal-tamil-recipe.html
Every single word – come to think of it, every single letter is copied! Not to mention the picture!!! Have left a comment (as always!) – Gawd so many freeloaders. Thanks Aru for letting me know! — DK
Hello! I just discovered your site. I have to say that it is a great site with some terrific recipes and outstanding photos! Don’t know if you do a link exchange or not but I will definetly link to you from my site!
Kind regards and best wishes with your venture!
Rich
http://www.not-just-recipes.com
Thank you Rich for your wonderful words
I dont do ‘link exchange’ per se but I have a blogroll where I categorize cooking/food based blogs and websites under various relevant headings. I have added your link here – http://chefinyou.com/blogroll/. Appreciate your interest in Chef In You
Wow,love this garden DK.Esp the new look is superb.Reading the about page for the first time
Hi DK,
remember me…I send u mine choc. drooling orange jack-o-lantern for pumpgrin….i’m just going thru your site…like it….nice write up here in this page…..though u guys are really doing good but still my good wishes to both of you…..
spice
Of course I remember you
Ever good wish sent our way is a blessing. Appreciate yours and highly welcomed with open arms 
— DK
Hi there!
I stumbled upon your blog while searching on how to make pumpkin puree from scratch and I love your blog instantly!
Looking forward to more great posts from you
From your new follower
Alesia, the home cook
Dear Alesia, thanks a lot for your encouraging words. Made my day
Hi! DK,
I have been following ur blog and tried some of ur great baking recipes. ur blog has been a great inspiration for me to start my own. the way u present ur recipe, awesome!!! i have jus started with my blog. hope to do it better.
Good Day
Priyavaasu
Dear Priya, Its indeed heartening to note your comment. I appreciate it a lot. Thanks for making my day
Will def, check your blog – DK
I am not able to access your blog? It says ‘it does not exist’ – can you pls provide me with your blog url again ? – DK
Hi DK,
Thanks for visiting my blog and your feedback. I am a frequent visitor and follower of yours I love the excellent design and content. Thank you for adding me to your blogroll-:)
Raje
Your blog has an amazing design and layout! Its takes a LOT of effort to get up something like this — have been thinking about doing that for nearly a year now, so can understand all you’ve gone through!! ! Kudos to you!
Thank you for your kind comment. It indeed feels good to be appreciated
Hey DK,
Congrats on the new website!
I am very happy to see this development and the recipes look yummy
I hope you will do more of these and add to this site. Good Luck!!
We miss your dishes in our potlucks here..:D
Always your well wisher…
Deeps
Hey Deeps! I gotto tell u, ur comment took me by surprise. So nice of you to leave me one! yes rey I miss those potlucks and Friday specials
I still remember our meet with lots of Pizza’s and dance at ur place! It seems so long ago! Miss you guyz a LOT! Hopefully I get to visit Seattle and visit you all and the little ones 
DK, the layout of the blog is AWESOME and looks very professional. Kudos to both the gardeners.
Thanks Madhu
The Gardeners are glad to hear that 