Meet the food blogger who is documenting Kerala dishes — and making waves

Featured By Prutha Chakraborty 22/04/2023 Read the article

Anjana Gopakumar’s allergy to spices stems from a medical condition she has: Atopic dermatitis, or eczema.

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“I have always been fascinated by the idea of food culture,” she tells South First. “The history of various dishes intrigues me.”

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She is a food blogger and a restaurant consultant based in Thiruvananthapuram, running a blog and an Instagram page titled Thank God I’m Fat — Big Heart, Bigger Appetite.

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“I grew up watching reality shows like Highway on My Plate by Rocky and Mayur, and cooking shows by Ritu Dalmia, Aditya Bal, Nigella Lawson and more,” she says.

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Gopakumar’s first career choice was of a chef, and in 2015, she enrolled in Manipal’s WAGSHA to learn the ropes, but her allergy forced her to drop out.

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While she couldn’t be a professional chef, Gopakumar has since then been focussed on the management side of the food industry.

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Gopakumar says the response to her journey in discovering Kerala cuisines has been “amazing” so far; She has about 73.8K followers just on Instagram.

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At the moment, Gopakumar is busy running another Instagram page called Eat At Trivandrum with other food enthusiasts.

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Gopakumar wants to write a book, as an ode to Kerala food. She actually started working on it in 2020 but “could not dedicate enough time” for it.

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