Cooking, sharing food, and caring for people have always come naturally to me. Long before SciCook existed, I found joy in preparing meals for friends, helping neighbors in need, and sharing food with people experiencing hunger on the streets. I never considered it extraordinary. It was simply part of who I am.
Growing up in India, food was deeply connected to family, culture, hospitality, and community. During my student years, when nutritious meals were not readily available in our dormitory, I organized a small kitchen and arranged for a cook to prepare meals for a group of friends. Looking back, perhaps that was my first community kitchen!
When I moved to the United States in 2001, I faced a different challenge. If I wanted to enjoy my grandmother’s cooking, I would have to learn to prepare it myself.
What began as a necessity soon became a passion.
My Kitchen Became My Second Laboratory
As a physician and biomedical scientist, I naturally approached cooking with scientific curiosity. I began seeing food preparation as a fascinating series of biochemical reactions, where ingredients, temperature, fermentation, spices, and cooking techniques come together to create delicious and nutritious meals.
Over time, I started questioning how traditional ethnic dishes could be made more nutritionally balanced without compromising their authentic flavors and cultural identity.
I began experimenting with ingredients and cooking methods, applying my scientific understanding to everyday recipes.
SciCream
One example is SciCream, a fermented, plant-based alternative to traditional dairy cream that I developed using ingredients such as cauliflower, carrots, and cashews. It allows me to create rich, creamy dishes while rethinking their nutritional composition.
For me, this was an exciting intersection of science, tradition, and creativity.
From Treating Disease to Promoting Health
My career in medicine and biomedical research also led me to question something more fundamental.
Why do we devote extraordinary resources to understanding and treating diseases, yet often give insufficient attention to preventing them in the first place?
Modern medicine has made remarkable advances in diagnosing and treating complex diseases. I have been privileged to contribute to that scientific progress.
But many chronic diseases are also influenced by nutrition, lifestyle, and other potentially modifiable factors.
I began thinking more seriously about the role food could play in promoting health and reducing disease risk.
Treatment is essential, but prevention deserves equal seriousness.
What if we applied more of our scientific knowledge to improving the food people eat every day, rather than focusing so much of our attention on treating the consequences of poor health?
This question gave my passion for cooking a deeper purpose.
From My Kitchen to the Community
Throughout my years at universities and in the workplace, I loved preparing and sharing meals at meetings, holiday celebrations, community gatherings, and dinners with friends.
For me, cooking was never just about creating a delicious dish. The real joy came from sharing it and bringing people together.
Eventually, I began wondering why something that brought so much joy, learning, and connection to my immediate circle could not be extended to a larger community.
I wanted to create a place where scientific knowledge could become practical, traditional cuisines could be celebrated and improved, and people could come together through the simple act of preparing and sharing food.
In 2024, I founded SciCook to bring together three things that had shaped much of my life:
Food. Science. Community.
Today, through our nutritious meals, cooking education, and community programs, I see that vision gradually taking shape.
Watching volunteers cook together, people learn new skills, and strangers connect over food reminds me why I began this journey.
SciCook is not a departure from my personal or professional life. It is a natural extension of both.
What began with cooking for myself, sharing meals with friends, and helping neighbors has become an opportunity to bring food, science, and community together on a larger scale.
And that is what continues to inspire me.
— Dr. Taher Sathaliya
Founder & Executive Director, SciCook