Hi! I’m Atulya Bhakti. Welcome to my vegan recipe blog!
I’m a professional chef by trade and have been working in a variety of kitchens, including working at restaurants, doing restaurant consultations, teaching at culinary schools, working as a private chef, and catering.
I didn’t discover my passion for cooking until my mid-twenties during a quarter life crisis, where I found myself lonely, depressed, and extremely insecure. So I did what most people would do, binge watched YouTube cooking videos.
I still remember the first time I actually mustered up the courage and will power to go out and buy the groceries to make my first dish. Due to beginners luck and a reliable recipe, it turned out to be a success (there were many failures after this btw). I felt a sense of satisfaction and certainty that this “cooking thing” was going to change my life.
Then I did what any 20-something-year-old would do during a quarter life crisis, I quit my secure corporate job, got a side hustle to pay them bills, and enrolled in yoga teacher training and culinary school.
During culinary school, I started staging (which is interning under a chef for free) at Plantfood and Wine, and at Make Out (both are plant-based eateries in Los Angeles). Upon graduation, I ended up working at both restaurants as well as teaching at the culinary school.
I was working for less than half of what I used to make in my previous corporate job, but I was happy to come to the kitchen for work rather than sitting on a desk at the office. It was humble beginnings, and I had little experience, but I just kept at it and quickly learned on the job.
Several years later, I had the opportunity to work as a chef on the set of Avatar 2. This job was a game changer for me. We would go to the kitchen at 6:30am everyday, and the head chef would assign us dishes that we would make for 200+ cast and crew members.
On most days I had no idea what those dishes were, and we changed up the menu daily; we rarely repeated menus. Everyday was an adventure and I loved every minute of cooking in that kitchen. This opportunity helped me overcome my fears in cooking and gave me a lot of confidence in trying new things. We were thrown into unknown territories everyday. This was exactly what I needed in my life, because I used to spend most of my life in analysis paralysis, fear of failure, and fearing the unknown.
Flash forward to where I am now, after working in professional kitchens for over 7 years, I’m ready for another change. My body was feeling pretty burnt out working in restaurants and doing massive amounts of catering. So I quit my comfortable kitchen career, got myself a side hustle to keep paying them bills, and am immersing myself in a new chapter of my life – writing vegan recipes and producing a YouTube cooking show that I’ve been dreaming about for years.
I’m making it my life’s mission to share with you guys all that I’ve learned in the kitchen and also share all the new things I will be learning through recipe testing for this blog. My wish for you is to cook more at home, venture out and try new things, gain confidence in the kitchen, and share all this delicious vegan food with your family and friends. I wish you guys the best of luck in cooking and baking at home, and thank you for letting me be a part of your journey.