About

 

I am Sneh and I live in gorgeous Sydney in Australia. I am a designer, food photographer and stylist. Cook Republic is my creative playground. It is a place for my food musings, a stage for the photographs I love to shoot, where I weave words into stories that form the fabric of my life. It is where memories are made, one recipe at a time! The seeds of Cook Republic were sown in 2003 when I started a personal recipe database called Gel’s Kitchen. Blogging was an alien concept back then and I was using Gel’s Kitchen to record recipes that I cooked and liked. By 2006, I had started blogging and found it to be an amazing medium to share my culinary adventures. And just like that Cook Republic was born.

 

I was born in India a good few decades ago and grew up in bustling Mumbai (It was called Bombay back then). A fantastical place forever festooned with crowds, colours, flavours and culture. I grew up on some of the best street food the country has to offer. Indian cooking is a huge part of me and my food philosophy. On Cook Republic, you will see Indian food play a very important role in trying to preserve the authentic flavours from my growing up years and creating fantastical fusion food drawing on those exotic flavours.

 

 

My food philosophy is all about cooking, exploring and celebrating real food. Food that is unpretentious, fresh, plenty and can be shared across a table with people you love. The food on Cook Republic doesn’t limit itself to a set group or ethnicity, it is exciting and adventurous and packed with variety. We are blessed with not having any dietary restrictions in our home, so we like to enjoy everything sensibly and with simplicity. I have spent the last seven years inventing and exploring healthy, nutrient rich recipes for myself and my family that I share on the blog regularly.  I test recipes from cookbooks on the blog all the time but what I enjoy most is creating something delicious and wholesome from fresh seasonal ingredients.  I grow a lot of fresh veggies and fruits in my garden. I consider myself an urban farmer and forager, one who keeps chickens in her backyard ( Mario, Luigi, Yoshi and Toad ) but is terrified of them and will not go anywhere near them. 

 

I met my best friend (Nick) 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 years ago and married him.  Our two little boys aged 9 (Rivs) and 5 (Gummi Bear) may not be food adventurers like us (yet!) but love being hand models for fresh produce. I have always thought of Cook Republic as my 3rd child. I am a hopeless foodie, a chronic baker who thinks bread to be the food of the Gods, sporadic doodler and a relentless romantic who seeks wonder in everything around me. To know more about my deepest fears and triumphs, have a gander at 38 Confessions Of A Food Blogger And Foodie. Cook Republic has helped me grow immensely as a cook and a food photographer. It has received amazing response and acceptance from the food community both online and offline. I have connected with like minded foodies and met some amazing people along the way. Cook Republic has been nominated for several awards in the past few years (has won a few!) and is regularly featured on leading online and print publications. My dream is to publish a cooking and lifestyle journal illustrated and photographed by me. 

 

I like to think that with every recipe I cook and every photograph I capture, I learn something new and share something different with this world. If you want to see and read more of my work and passions, check out food designs by Tasty Circus,  design blog LBOI and Portfolio. To get my attention, email me! And don’t forget to follow me on Pinterest (I am seriously addicted!)

 

Cook Republic is a personal journey, a very intimate exercise in writing and experiencing the world around me. All opinions expressed on the blog are my own and are never influenced by an individual or a brand. I am constantly exploring and trying out new things. If I love something, it makes an appearance on the blog. If I don’t, it doesn’t. In the event I choose to accept a product and write about it, it gets the proper credit it deserves.