Whisky Marmalade & Watermelon Pickle: This Home Chef's Brilliant

Noida-based Ambika Varma’s love for cooking and feeding people in general led to her starting Family Food Chronicles, a small food venture that makes yummy marmalade, pickles, fruit conserves and more.

Ambika is a TV producer and like most of us, she works crazy hours. So the idea of venturing into food had stayed on the back-burner for a long time. Until this Holi. She put out a social media post asking if someone would like a taste of the whisky marmalade and she was flooded with requests. That changed everything for her. She started shipping out batches on one-day deadlines and evolved her menu as she went along.

The first month, she did Chicken Liver Pate {a Christmas-time favourite}, Lal Mirch Ka Achaar, Bitter Marmalade and Whiskey Marmalade in 200 and 300gm variants. Everything on the menu is a secret a recipe that’s been handed down to Ambika. There’s a beautiful medley of flavours that comes from diverse cultural influences from Bihar, England, Calcutta and UP, all of which are a confetti burst in your mouth.

She’s determined to cook only with seasonal produce so if she can lay her hands on Nagpur oranges, there might be marmalade and if her father can get fresh mirchis on his way back from Rajasthan, you’ll get to pick the mirchi pickle. We’re talking no preservatives and going back to traditional methods of cooking and food preservation. Another reason to order? Well, of course. Your morning toast won’t be lacklustre anymore and those parathas will finally come alive with the pickle. 

We promise, these family favourites will change the boring face of everyday cuisine. Just give Ambika a shout a day or two before you need your order and she’ll have it ready for you to pick up from Noida or GK 1.

Top secret: She plans to start making breads and tea cakes super soon too.

Happy eating, sexy pickles.