Hey There!

Being someone who wears multiple hats, I'm sort of a jack-of-all-trades. Will I be a master of any of them? Hopefully, one day! 
 

My background: I grew up watching mom cooking while sitting on the paaneri (Indian kitchen cooking platform) next to her. I got my love of cooking from her. Her love of reading translated into a love of reading for my siblings and me. My favorite 'teachers/tutors' in elementary/primary school were the history teacher, the science teacher and the school librarian.

 

I remember waiting eagerly for library class every week till we got our books exchanged. Our school classes consisted of 90 to 110 students. And we were herded to the library in batches of about 15 each. 'Miss' as we called her, would take everyone's book back and give us a new one. Most of the other seven year olds asked her to give 'thinner' books (think comics or short stories), but I would ask her for 'fatter' books (Enid Blyton and the likes). She'd often give me two books and wink at me. I waited for those 15 mins of school every week! 
 

I almost became a librarian when I was supposed to do my Master's in Library Science, but yeah, life. 

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After my degree in Engineering, I worked for a bank for almost 6 years, rose through the ranks, and then left for a Master's degree in ICT Management. Did well again, but then decided I really needed to do something I liked. 

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The choice was a well paid job as an EA for a big guy or an underpaid job as a Senior Writer for a content marketing firm. Yep, you know what I chose! 

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Did that for a year and then finally started my website called The Winged Fork in 2017 where I shared travel stories and recipes. It lived for seven years while I earned from my side-hustle as freelance ghostwriter. In 2022, I started my other blog Abby's Plate where I focused only on food. It was all about mom's and granny's recipes, along with my own fusion recipes and experimental wines. And finally a few months later, I started Abby's Hearth, where I blog about life, and faith and home.

 

Over time, I merged The Winged Fork and Abby's Plate into Abby's Hearth and it's been doing quite well.   

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But don't think I've forgotten about food or reading. My love of both were merged into one, when I started ghostwriting for more food bloggers and authors as a side hustle. And finally the day came when I published my first cookbook - a simple collection of our family's Easter recipes called Easter with the Rebellos in March 2023.

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That was soon followed by Christmas with the Rebellos (July 2023) and a collection of community recipes called East Indian Celebration: Festive Recipes from Abby's Hearth (April 2023 and Sept 2023). 

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Readers loved the way we put together these recipes and asked for more. And the rest, as they say, is history. 

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My most popular book - Jevayla Ye: Everyday East Indian Recipes - was published with the help of family and friends in Dec 2024. It's a compendium of mom's and granny's traditional East Indian recipes that have been handed down through the generations. This book has won the title Best Indigenous People Cookbook in the World during the 31st international Gourmand Awards.

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This book was followed by the Essentially East Indian Seafood: Recipes from Abby's Hearth (May 2025) book that came in second to Aris Guzman's Seafood Flavors at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2025 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

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Both titles get the honour of being called the Best in the World, and I'm really happy. There are so many more books I've planned in my head. Hopefully, they all come to fruition some day soon!

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Till then, thank you for your support, and if you have any questions, find me on social - I'm @abbyshearth on YouTube, Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram. You can also contact me by email me at hearthandplatemedia@gmail.com or abby@abbyshearth.com