Shriya belongs to Manguluru’s Bunt community, an agrarian culture that maintains its hyperlocal culinary traditions even today. Cooking from the backyard garden was the norm. Shriya’s interest in food, however, started when she was in school, with baking. At 16, she began taking orders for cakes and pastries from friends and family. After completing a degree in commerce, she knew that food was her calling and that she belonged in a restaurant kitchen.
Shriya trained at top restaurants in Mumbai and Bangkok, learning fast on the job. Eventually, however, she left the big city of Mumbai to return to Mangaluru, where she co-founded a bakery and kitchen called BUCO. She also began traveling across the coastal region to document its recipes and culinary practices.
Shriya’s intent is to showcase the versatility, seasonality and the inherent zero-waste methods of traditional Mangalorean cooking. Venturing to nearby villages, Shriya coaxes culinary wisdom from local matriarchs and preserves their recipes through pop-ups and workshops.
When she’s not traveling, Shriya is usually pottering about in her backyard and planning the next meal with the herbs and leafy plants that grow there or chasing the season’s fresh catch from Mangalore's freshwater streams.
