Nambie Jessica Marak moved to Chennai for her increased training. Hailing from Higher Rangsa, a village within the West Khasi Hills of Meghalaya, she missed house meals. Whereas she cherished the dosas, idlis and biryanis, she ached for her consolation meals — a rustic rooster soup with fiddlehead ferns. Sadly, what she acquired within the TN capital was simply momos, which didn’t reduce it.

What bothered her extra was the notion of the Northeast tradition and meals. Wanting to coach her associates concerning the intricacies of her meals, she regarded for YouTube channels. Discovering that many of the channels had been in native languages, in 2015, she determined to begin her personal referred to as ‘Eat Your Kappa’ to doc Northeastern meals.

Being one of many few meals bloggers from the area on the time, Nambie shot to fame, as she gave the viewers a glimpse into life within the hills.

What strikes me about Nambie, watching her movies, and later, talking to her, is her simplicity, authenticity and realness. She takes her viewers on a journey to Higher Rangsa, displaying how they choose contemporary greens, fruits, and spices, and cook dinner them on a hearth range exterior their home.

She has over 60,000 followers throughout social media channels.

The recognition of her channel and the authenticity of her meals led to an opportunity to audition for MasterChef India. Immediately, she’s among the many high eight finalists and has stumped the judges and viewers along with her modern use of Northeastern elements in varied dishes.

Married to a South Indian, she additionally makes fascinating dishes combining the 2 cuisines.

One other hat that the 35-year-old proudly wears is that of a instructor. Alongside along with her husband Sunny, she has adopted a faculty in Higher Rangsa, taking duty for the training of over 85 youngsters from their village and the neighbouring ones.

In a dialog with The Higher India, Nambie unpacks the exceptional journey that took her throughout Shillong, Chennai, Karnataka, and again to her roots.

Taking us to Meghalaya by her lens

Rising up in Shillong, Nambie’s initiation to the kitchen began pretty younger as her mom inspired the kids to make their very own meals.

“I’ve been cooking for so far as I can bear in mind. My mom labored actually exhausting to place meals on the desk. She would weave garments, do embroidery and a few small companies. Whereas she did this to offer us with a great life, she would ensure that we cooked our personal meals,” says Nambie.

Even after successful over high cooks — together with British Chef Marco Pierre White — she says that she’s “not so good at cooking!”

“I like to eat essentially the most. I understand how to cook dinner however what I actually take pleasure in is consuming and discovering new recipes in books and YouTube channels,” she says.

Whereas she calls herself a “rookie cook dinner”, the inspiration for her stint as a cook dinner was strengthened in class, the place she took house science as an elective topic. It was strengthened additional when she began residing by herself in Chennai, the place she moved for her postgraduate research and labored for a number of years.

Whereas working as an assistant professor in a university, she additionally discovered time for her YouTube movies. She would go house throughout holidays and shoot movies each single day. Since her village doesn’t have web connectivity, she would edit and add the movies after returning to Chennai.

On her channel, she’s breaking stereotypes about Northeastern delicacies. Folks typically assume it’s all about “consuming weird meals” or “consuming something that strikes”, in accordance with her.

A harbinger of hope

Kappa is the cooking method utilized by the Garo tribe, to which Nambie belongs, wherein meat and greens are cooked utilizing liquid alkali (referred to as kalchi in Garo). She calls Kappa “synonymous with Northeastern delicacies”.

In households within the West Khasi Hills, meals is basically easy and made utilizing domestically sourced elements, often from their farms.

“We’re rice eaters and don’t eat breakfast. Our mornings start with some crimson or black tea. We eat lunch by 10 am, which provides the residents, largely farmers, power to work all through the day. We have now dinner by 5 pm,” she shares.

“We eat a variety of meat because it will get very chilly throughout winter. We save our meat and fish by smoking them. A typical meal contains rice, dal, meat or dried fish, and plenty of greens out there in our yard (root, wild, leafy greens) with a aspect of chutney. We additionally dry greens,” she provides.

In her dishes, Nambie heroes elements grown in Meghalaya — like fiddlehead ferns, elephant apple, elephant foot yams, purple yams, Indian sorrel, fish mint leaves, sohiong (blackberry), sohplhang (a root vegetable) and extra.

She makes chutneys utilizing elements like brinjal and dry fish, fermented fish chutney, dried roselle with rooster pura (rice flour), jadoh (a Khasi rice recipe), beef trotter soup, muskmelon and pork gravy dish, and way more.

Whereas she was appreciated by many, she additionally confronted vicious trolling and hate. Trolls ridiculed her for cooking outdoor, the meals she cooked, and even the truth that she wore slippers.

“There have been some actually harsh feedback. Folks stated issues like “Your meals appears to be like like pet food” and “Why are you carrying these slippers?”. I cook dinner exterior as we don’t have electrical energy more often than not at house, and I wished to point out our environment,” she shares.

The trolling reached some extent the place she thought-about quitting social media as a result of extreme negativity. All she was attempting to do was showcase her house, environment and meals. Realising that she would let the naysayers win if she gave up, she determined to beat the hate by rising a thick pores and skin. She targeted on the optimistic feedback, which had been additionally many in quantity.

“I made a decision to just accept that there shall be negativity and folks attempting to tug you down. What issues is that it is best to consider in what you do. I didn’t wish to let the haters win. What I’m doing is attempting to showcase my delicacies and break the stereotypes related to it,” she provides.

She overcame the xenophobia and have become a harbinger for a lot of extra YouTubers from the Northeast, which led to her cementing a place in MasterChef as we speak.

Offering a brand new lease of life to youngsters

Whereas her YouTube channel was flourishing, she needed to transfer again house as her mom was in poor health. In 2019, she packed her luggage and moved to Higher Rangsa along with her toddler daughter. Just a few months later, her husband, additionally a instructor, packed his luggage, stop his job and adopted go well with.

Being the 2 most educated folks in the complete village of 150 folks, they had been quickly introduced with a chance to create change, when a non-public faculty within the neighbouring village was about to close down.

“Final yr, the individual working the college discovered it tough to handle the college. He deserted the college and the kids and left. The village head got here to us and requested us to assist as it’s the solely faculty for the kids within the neighbourhood,” says Nambie.

Provided a faculty on a plate and an opportunity to assist villagers, the couple took up the problem. They adopted the college and the 19 college students on the time.

“Our village sits close to the border, and with poor roads, commuting to colleges exterior every day isn’t possible. If this faculty closes, it’ll disrupt many farmers’ lives. They may want to maneuver to Assam, straining sources and dropping their earnings. We didn’t need them to fret about the place their youngsters go to high school. We solely need them to deal with their farms,” explains Nambie.

Previously yr, the power of the college has elevated from 19 to 85. They do that without cost, solely charging a nominal payment to pay the opposite academics.

Of their spare time, the couple tends to a farm, cultivating lemongrass. They promote lemongrass oil, whereas Nambie pursues her ardour for pickling by beginning a pickle enterprise. She additionally desires of opening a restaurant sometime.

What’s extra vital to Nambie — educating or cooking?

“I’ve at all times been linked to meals and I actually take pleasure in being round youngsters. You study one thing new in each educating and cooking. Day-after-day is a brand new day within the kitchen in addition to the classroom. I find it irresistible. Why would I select between the 2?” laughs Nambie.

Edited by Pranita Bhat