Sana Javeri Kadri Pushes 19 Kitchen Essentials as Diaspora Co Cookbook Teaches Intuitive Spice Use
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Jun 11
Sana Javeri Kadri Pushes 19 Kitchen Essentials as Diaspora Co Cookbook Teaches Intuitive Spice Use
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jun 11
Summary
March’s Diaspora Co Cookbook is Sana Javeri Kadri’s latest push to get home cooks using spices actively rather than letting them sit in the pantry.
Kadri says spices should be toasted, roasted, simmered or sizzled—not used raw—and frames the book as a way to make South Asian cooking feel intuitive, not complicated or heavy.
More than four months in India shaped that approach: Kadri and co-author Asha Loupy interviewed dozens of spice farmers and drew on how growers cook with the crops they produce.
Kadri’s practical recommendations center on everyday tools and staples, including a metal-mechanism pepper mill, a 5-pound mortar and pestle, a Dutch oven and a rice cooker used daily.
The cookbook extends Diaspora Co’s decade-long mission beyond selling turmeric and other spices into teaching consumers how fresher, more transparent sourcing can translate into everyday cooking.