About Inspired Indian Cooking

Founder and owner Kalpana Waikar loved eating her mother's delicious home-cooked Indian food, but never learned how to cook it because the instructions were a bit "cryptic." That changed when she began living on her own in the mid-90's and taught herself with cookbooks, realizing she remembered some of mom's techniques after all. She also observed something important: so many friends and colleagues were very interested in cooking Indian food but reluctant to try. Why? Low confidence, overly complex recipes, difficult-to-find spices going unused or stale. That insight, coupled with her cooking knowledge and entrepreneurial spirit, motivated her to launch Inspired Indian Cooking, to empower anyone to cook Indian food without compromising on spices, flavor, or tradition. It started as a monthly subscription box in late 2019 and quickly gained popularity nationwide. Along the way, she began offering spice kits for iconic dishes, so people could cook their favorite dishes whenever they wanted. Soon after, she opened a retail shop in Evanston, Illinois which houses a commercial kitchen where Inspired Indian spices are roasted, ground, and packaged daily in small batches. We're excited by how far we've come and even more so to bring traditional Indian cooking to a broader audience, one spice kit at a time!Read their story