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Private Chef - The Essence of India
Private Chef - The Essence of India
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Get a taste of several Indian-food favorites in this authentic dining experience.
Chef Rakhi has prepared a menu of authentic Indian dishes for you to try in this private chef experience. Begin with aloo tikki, a popular dish made with potatoes and tamarind chutney. Then, enjoy a classic creamy chicken tikka masala for the main course paired with jeera pulao, fluffy rice spiced with cumin seeds, followed by gobi matar — a vegetable dish with cauliflower and peas. Enjoy fudge-like chocolate barfi for dessert.
Guests are welcome to provide wine and beer to accompany the menu, and may request pairing recommendations from the chef upon booking.
Aloo Tikki and Tamarind Chutney
With potatoes and rice flour
Chicken Tikka Masala
With yogurt and tomato paste
Jeera Pulao
With basmati rice, cumin seeds and ghee
Gobi Matar
With cauliflower, ginger and peas
Chocolate Barfi
With milk powder and sugar
Most dietary restrictions can be accommodated if noted prior to the event. Please mention this in the message field when you submit your booking request as adjustments cannot be made during the event.
- Minimum Guests 2
- Maximum Guests 12
- Meal Courses 4
- Event Duration 4 hours
- Chef Arrival Time 2 hours prior to the selected serving time
What's included
Reviews guests left for other experiences with Chef Rakhi
Shawn
28 Sep 2024
She is patient and sweet.. Food was amazing!!
Joshua
07 Sep 2024
Great class and fantastic food. Chef Rakhi was a great host as well.
Igor
07 Sep 2024
Chef Rakhi did an amazing job making various recipes. The food was great and her home is lovely. Highly recommending to anyone to take one of classes with her!
Micah
22 Aug 2024
Chef Rakhi did an excellent job making the recipes very approachable and absolutely delicious. Definitely adding these to my cooking rotation. Highly recommend taking one of her classes.
Tylar Williams
10 Aug 2024
Chef Rakhi was wonderful! We booked the Bistro Bites experience for my sister’s bachelorette weekend. The food was great and her home is lovely. Would totally recommend you taking a class with her!
Harla
23 Jul 2024
This is my second cooking experience with Chef Rakhi and it was just as wonderful as the first. I learned so much and the food was delicious! I highly recommend.
Aliyah
14 Jul 2024
Chef Rakhi was amazing! She shared her wealth of knowledge & love for cooking in every recipe we brought to life. Her teaching style is very detailed & hands on. We learned so much & are excited about integrating the authentic Indian recipes we learned into our regular cooking schedule. Can’t wait to take another cooking class when we’re visiting Chicago again! Highly recommended!!
Andrew
27 Jun 2024
Chef Rakhi is wonderful and kind. Super friendly and warm! Felt more like I was having dinner at a friend’s house, a friend who really knows how to cook. Will definitely book again!!
Becca
20 Jun 2024
We did the bistro class with Chef Rakhi and really enjoyed the whole experience! She was very thorough in her explanations and in answering all of our questions. We also enjoyed talking with her and sharing stories while our food was cooking. The chicken pot pie was delicious and very flavorful, and the salad seemed so simple but showed us new ways to combine ingredients. We would definitely book this and other experiences again!
Maddie
30 Apr 2024
My friend and I had the BEST time with Chef Rahki! We made delicious Chinese food and learned so much about how to cook vegetables and chicken the best. We even got to make our own dough for the dessert. Chef Rahki was warm, welcoming, and funny! We loved hanging out with her. Here is a video from our experience! https://teams.microsoft.com/l/message/48:notes/1713229706760?context=%7B%22contextType%22%3A%22chat%22%7D
Hayden Wiest
22 Apr 2024
I highly highly recommend a class with Chef Rakhi. She was a great host, a great chef, and a great time overall. She is my first choice for my next cooking class as well.
Barbara
18 Apr 2024
A very informative and enjoyable experience. Chef was engaging and fun. Loved the environment
Theisen
30 Mar 2024
We really enjoyed Rakhi’s cooking class! She was funny and had tons of good advice. Food was delicious!
Hudson
28 Feb 2024
Chef Rakhi's class was excellent and engaging, and she creates a very welcoming and comfortable environment. We cook a decent amount at home and learned quite a lot from her vegetarian Indian cooking class. Highly recommend her class for folks at all skill levels
Lisa
25 Feb 2024
What an amazing time my daughter and I had. The food along with delightful stories from Chef Rakhi made the night complete!
David
13 Feb 2024
Rakhi was a wonderful host. She involved everyone and took genuine interest in all of us. It was delightful to cook with her and we will absolutely book another class with her.
Julianna
10 Feb 2024
We LOVED Chef Rakhi's Anglo-Indian class! She is so kind and informative- very talented chef! She is so welcoming and her kitchen is beautiful. The class was very collaborative and fun! She shared so many helpful tips and tricks that we will be able to use while cooking! Highly recommend taking any of her classes!
Arhant
07 Dec 2023
Chef Rakhi is such a great teacher. It is a great, hands-on, and fun experience. Her home is very welcoming and you'll be blown away by the spices in the kitchen. She is very knowledgeable about cooking and has a wide range of experience, being able to answer any questions the group had. If you want to book a cooking class from her I recommend booking from her website spicegirlontour.com for an even more personal experience. Either way, I wholly recommend Chef Rakhi!
Abeni
07 Dec 2023
My husband and I had such a great time! We were able to be hands on so we learned a lot and the environment was warm and friendly. We definitely intend to take another class with Chef Rakhi soon.
Stephanie
06 Dec 2023
Chef Rakhi’s cooking class was fantastic! Her home is beautiful and cozy, and the size of the group is intimate where you can really learn about the meal and cooking skills in a comfortable environment. It was very casual and relaxing and the food was fantastic, would highly recommend!
Conner
31 Oct 2023
Chef Rakhi led us through a really interesting and insightful cooking class and we were so happy we came. She made it a really great experience and was as much of an entertainer as she was a chef. Good luck with finklestein.
Bill
31 Oct 2023
We had a great time at the vegetarian Indian cooking class. Rahki was so much fun and an awesome host, and her cooking instruction and food were wonderful! It was a perfect gift for my wife's birthday as she loves to cook. 5 stars!
Karina
22 Sep 2023
Took the vegetarian Indian classics cooking class with my brother and sister and it was a blast. The chef made sure to include everyone in the cooking process, which I really liked. The food was absolutely amazing and so simple!
Yuvraj
18 Sep 2023
It was a great experience. Chef Rakhi was an awesome host and made us feel very comfortable. She taught us the recipes very well. It was quite an interactive session. Will highly recommend as an experience.
Megan
15 Sep 2023
Nothing short of amazing. When you enter the warm inviting home of Chef Rakhi, you are enveloped into a warm comforting fairytale. The bright, cheerfully decorated kitchen dances in front of your eyes, you feel nothing short of love and joy bouncing off the walls to greet you. Her entire space is decorated with such eclectic purpose, you can feel the precise care and thoughtfulness from floor to ceiling. Chef was so well prepared for us, everything was ready to go upon arrival. Ambient music played in the background while she explained the menu to us and discussed the important ingredients as well as where to source them for ourselves. We learned how to make fresh caramel sauce for the most AMAZING flan I have ever tasted. Her homemade vanilla extract was to die for. Everything was so fresh, simple to follow along, yet elegant and absolutely delicious. I can’t wait to come back. It is so obvious that Chef absolutely loves what she does, what a wonderful experience.
Lara
13 Aug 2023
Chef Rakhi was an amazing host. She allowed us to be educated in the kitchen and empowered in the process. We can’t stop talking about how incredible and easy the food was to make. Highly recommend!!!
Michael
11 Aug 2023
Chef Rakhi is one of a kind! We had an awesome experience learning how to make vegetarian Indian dishes with her. She made us feel like family and made cooking straightforward, fun, and simple. Highly recommended.
Wynee
24 Jul 2023
This was a fun evening. Our family with a high schooler were hands on.Chef Rakhi showed us what to do and then we tried it. We don't know anything about Indian cooking, so she patiently explained all of the spices and where to buy them. It ended up being just our family which let us ask all kinds of basic cooking questions about cookware, knives, cutting techniques, etc. She joked with us and was very encouraging. The food was delicious!
Amanda
06 Jul 2023
Chef Rakhi is great! Food was amazing and recipes were easy to catch on to. Wonderful experience, highly recommended
Bart
18 Dec 2022
Chef Rakhi was fantastic! We went on a date to veggie Tex Mex cooking class. She was welcoming and engaging from the start, well prepared with the ingredients and recipes and immediately made us feel like we were a part of her team. She was knowledgeable and willing to share her expertise, but also made us feel like a part of the cooking process. She is a true professional, and the food was delicious! Highly recommend for a date, a family or a group of friends!
Amy
18 Dec 2022
Chef Rakhi is personable, knowledgeable, and professional. Her house is beautiful and very welcoming. Chef Rakhi provided us with a fun evening and an incredible meal. We absolutely loved everything on the menu. Best of all, everyone in our group feels confident that we can recreate the meals in our own homes due to Chef Rakhi's excellent instructions and recipes.
Liz
05 Dec 2022
Rakhi was so sweet, wonderful, and informative. Her space is absolutely stunning and she’s a wonderfully engaging teacher. Absolutely cannot recommend her enough. She made our night very special. Thanks Rakhi!
Nicole
19 Nov 2022
Chef Rakhi was delightful and informative and the food was delicious! We gave 4/5 starts because we thought there could have been more food. The quantity was not enough for the 8 people in our class. And, the class was not quite as hands-on as we were expecting. But, we still had a great time and would recommend!
Molly
19 Nov 2022
Chef Rahki was kind, welcoming, funny and importantly a great instructor! Really fun event.
Neha
15 Nov 2022
Rakhi was an incredible host! She walked us through all the dishes, but more importantly made us feel comfortable and at home. We had great conversation, food, and flow. She is so skilled and also has an incredibly warm home, unique recipes, and great stories. Highly recommend!!
Julia
15 Nov 2022
We had such a great class with Chef Rakhi! She gave us really clear step by step instructions, and the food turned out amazing. Her home is adorable and we had a great time chatting and getting to know her story as well. Super informative, would love to take another one of her classes!
Ravi
15 Nov 2022
Had an amazing time and learned so much from Chef Rakhi! She gave a lot of tips and explained the ingredient choices throughout. Can’t stop thinking about the soup and elote we had. Would definitely recommend!
Adam
26 Oct 2022
We just returned from our date night dinner with Chef Rakhi. What an incredibly enjoyable evening. Rakhi was such a friendly, interesting and gracious host, and she did a phenomenal job answering questions as she showed us how to prepare the meal in her beautiful kitchen. Her food tasted amazing and her teaching skills were second to none. We'll definitely be scheduling another evening for dinner with Rakhi in the near future. Very satisfied with our whole experience!
Lisa
26 Oct 2022
Chef Rakhi is incredibly talented, welcoming, and approachable. She crafted a menu with food that has delightful flavor complexity, yet is easy enough to make on an average night. Her style makes it easy to feel at ease and to learn. Although she’s trained around the world, like a good friend inviting you over, you can ask any question, and she will answer with kindness and a maybe a story. Along with being a highly capable chef and teacher, she is also a skilled hostess, who makes it feel surprisingly comfortable to spend the evening with classmates we just met. I would highly recommend booking an experience with her!
Alisa
07 Oct 2022
I had a great experience with Chef Rhaki! She was very knowledgeable about all of the ingredients and their histories. Her kitchen is beautiful and she encouraged us to ask questions and help prepare the dishes. She explained why she did each step in their order and even the best places to buy ingredients. The meal was absolutely delicious and im excited to try making the pakora with other types of vegetables!
Tonya
02 Oct 2022
Rakhi was an absolute joy! Wonderfully flexible to last minute changes and working to accommodate our VBRO environment. She was warm, funny, knowledgeable, and the whole crew had a great time. The resulting food was fabulous! We are hoping to take the provided recipes and recreate some magic at home. We learned a lot. 100% recommend!
Bridget
28 Jul 2022
Chef Rakhi is fantastic! She is a talented chef and a wonderful host. She has extensive knowledge in global cuisines and we learned so much from her. I highly recommend taking all of her classes and booking her as your next private chef!
Reviews Chef Rakhi received outside of Cozymeal
Rajib
19 Aug 2022
Rakhi curated and cooked an excellent menu for an event at my resort - Haroocharai Tea Estate. It still leaves my tastebuds craving for more. Her knowledge of different cuisines is vast and her presentations excellent.
Uttara
15 Aug 2022
Chef Rakhi’s love and passion for food elevates everything she creates whether it is authentic Asian Fusion, traditional Thai, or Indian classics. She has such artistry, dexterity, and speed in the kitchen that you have no doubt that you are watching a master at work. I feel lucky to have attended her lively food classes and learnt some beautiful and refined dishes from the best. She builds layers and layers of flavor into her dishes and teaches you how to work with ingredients you have never heard of before. There are all sorts of good reasons for being in the kitchen with Chef Rakhi — it is like continuing education and a culinary journey into new worlds.
Bubbly
04 Aug 2022
Chef Rakhi is amazing. A day well spent with friends , great food and laughter. Highly recommend her Thai food experience… am craving for more. Tastefully decorated home and kitchen add to the experience. She is fun and witty with well honed culinary skills. Go for it!
Kim
04 Aug 2022
Chef Rakhi creates a warm soothing atmosphere for everyone to share a feast and fun - all-in-one. Her flavorful food and/or dessert is only the mere icing on the cake! Rakhi’s personality adds so much value to this learning event, not a moment or spice is wasted. Highly recommend this wonderful chef!
Recipe developer, instructor and food writer, Chef Rakhi inspires creativity and shares a passion for food with each dish she creates. An outstanding graduate of Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Institute in Los Angeles, she has trained with celebrated chefs and worked across the industry for a decade. Drawing knowledge and experience from generations of talented cooks, she specializes in South East Asian and Tex-Mex cuisines.
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Chef Rakhi will travel to guests within Chicago for this experience.
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