Nutritionist and chef Mala Patel helps guide and refine culinary repertoires, creating homemade, multicourse Indian feasts during her classes. Combining comprehensive demonstrations with a hands-on cooking experience, balanced with an insightful understanding of the benefits of Indian cuisine and its relationship to good health in sessions such as "Classic Vegetarian Cuisine", "Classic Non-vegetarian Cuisine", "Muglai Feast", "Street Side Foods from India", "Snacks and Appetizers from India", "South Indian Exotic Escape" and "Passage to North India". Small classes consisting of no more than 10 -12 chefs-in-training intimately explore chicken and vegetarian dishes flavored by aromatic spices, garlic, ginger, and green chilies. She says, "I do not classify myself as a gourmet chef - I am a good cook and an even better teacher, and I teach from my heart. My specialty is simplifying food in a way that a novice could do it."
Mala grew up cooking alongside her mother Jaya Patel, in Gujarat, India, where she loved concocting new varieties of her favorite dishes. She credits her mother for teaching her "pre-prep-arations," - such as chopping and freezing garlic, ginger and green chilies for future use, she also learned practical and flexible approaches to cooking.