Asha Gomez

Creator, Spice Route Supper Club; and chef, Cardamom Hill
Atlanta, Georgia

The sights, smells, and sounds in Asha Gomez’s kitchen are so

alluring, so mouthwatering, that when we finally sit down at the

table to eat with her husband, Bobby, and her friend Bill, it takes

me a moment to notice that there isn’t any silverware.

“Utensils aren’t big in Kerala,” explains Gomez. “We eat with

our hands.”

When she sees my worried look she adds, “It makes the food

taste better.”

Let’s rewind for a moment. Gomez is the proprietor of the

Spice Route Supper Club, a tribute to the region where she and her

husband are from: Kerala, a state in southwest India. When Gomez

talks about Kerala, her big blue eyes light up. “The Arabian Sea is

on one side, the Indian Ocean is on the other side. Everything there

is lush and vibrant.”

That includes the food, which Gomez re-creates with passion,

inspired by her memories of the communal home where she grew

up with her mother and her mother’s sisters, who would prepare

breakfast, lunch, tea, and dinner day in, day out.

“There was magic in that kitchen,” says Gomez as she begins

prepping the ingredients for the first dish she’s going to teach me,