The girl who was too young.

Fifty guests, one missing caterer

The caterer never arrived. Nani’s hands were trembling, the pav bhaji set-up was ready, and nobody knew how to cook it. A twelve-year-old said, “Don’t worry, we will figure out something.”

“That evening I didn’t just cook. I discovered my power.”

Too young, at 19

At the Rasoi ki Maharani audition the judge asked how many threads mohanthal syrup should have. “Two threads, aunty… and a spoon of malai. My nani’s secret.” The judges said, “Aanal, we salute you,” and sent her home from the final 30 for being too young.

She was offered the host’s chair instead, and said no.

“I don’t want to do hosting. I want to come on this show as a contestant, and I want to win.”

The runaway mehendi

A year later her recipe was selected again. The audition fell on her mehendi day, two days before her engagement. Her family said no. Her masi said yes: she told the house they were going to the salon, and the two of them cooked the dish at masi’s and joined the queue.

Her fiancé, Bhavik, kept his family from arriving on time. When she finally walked in, his family said, “Just let her be.”

Unstoppable

From the final 12 to the grand finale, and the title of youngest chef of Gujarat. By February 2012 she was on television as a culinary expert. At the finale she looked at her family’s faces.

“Whether I win this show or not, from today I am going to be unstoppable.”

Opening night

After four years of studying how a restaurant could fail, with a vada-pav stall as Plan B, The Secret Kitchen opened in Vadodara. Guests teased her father-in-law: “Rasikbhai, what have you done? Not even an enemy would be put into this business.”

By Diwali the same people were calling him for tables. He told her she had proven herself.

“Fly now. I am there.”

One sentence from Nani

Eighteen months of preservative-free gravy samples kept failing. Then one sentence from her grandmother about pickles fixed them. That method became the Baroda retort factory that now makes about 90% of every TSK outlet’s bases.

Swabhiman: self-respect

When women working at her factory faced resistance at home, she rebuilt the business around them selling TSK masalas and gravies from home. One woman saved her earnings and flew her family to Haridwar, their first flight.

Other women told her they had no value in their own homes. She heard herself in them, and that day she said sorry to her own mother.

Food is her art. Fashion is her voice.

A NIFT-trained designer before she was a chef, she still co-runs the couture label Purvi Aanal with Purvi Pujara. You can see it on every plate she garnishes.