It might sound a little out of the ordinary, but this week’s Let’s Eat features a Laurentian University psychology professor who has been shortlisted for an international cookbook award.
Dr. Reeshma Haji, an online adjunct professor of psychology at Laurentian University who lives in Vaughan, has been shortlisted for the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, which honour the finest food and wine cookbooks from the past year.
Haji has always had an appetite for global cuisine. With ties to Tanzania and India, she tries to build cooking classes into her schedule while travelling the world.
“My favourite cooking classes were in Malaysia where I learned to make a Beef Rendang (a curry with layers of spices) and also in Rome where I learned to make Eggplant Parmesan — it was colourful and oh so good,” she said.
In 2019, while working full time as a professor, Dr. Haji also completed a Culinary Arts Certificate at George Brown College.
Her cookbook, “All the Russ without the Fuss: Khoja Fusion Recipes for Busy Lives” draws inspiration from her Khoja heritage, a blend of East African and Indian influences.
The word “russ” in the name is another word for sauce, a constant source of inspiration for her cooking.
Another source of creativity was her mother, and her brother whom she cooked with at a young age, when both her parents were at work.
“Before my mom passed away, I made sure to write down all her traditional recipes because cooking has always fed by soul,” Haji said.
Some of those gems are included in the cookbook alongside her own fusion creations like Masala fish pie and potato recipe, which brings together the fish pie her aunt would always serve her in England along with the masala of her mother.
She adds that as a professional who teaches and also works privately as an academic coach for students working on thesis papers, she wanted to ensure she lived by her motto of setting a 30-minute cooking parameter with each recipe in the cookbook.
“Even the biryani sauce and rice is ready in under 30 minutes, which is a gamechanger,” Haji said. “Fusion and fast-paced are so important to me.
“As a professional with a young family, I recognize that time is of the essence for many. I like to dedicate time to good food, but recognize there are only so many hours in the day,”
As a mother to a young child, she also wanted to ensure that there were opportunities for people to work together when executing the recipes.
“I had a grandmother who loved to cook, but had physical limitations. I also have a young daughter who wants to help in the kitchen too. I recognized that,” she said.
Haji has been nominated in two categories at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, Indian and independently published categories.
She will learn the outcome in June in Lisbon, Portugal.
The cookbook is available on Amazon and is dedicated to her mother and her brother, with whom she cooked alongside over the years.
The cookbook is available worldwide on Amazon under the name “All the Russ without the Fuss: Khoja Fusion Recipes for Busy Live”.
Anastasia Rioux is a writer in Greater Sudbury. Let’s Eat! is made possible by our Community Leaders Program.