Kamran Siddiqi

Hey there! I’m Kamran Siddiqi. Feel free to call me Kam; most of my friends and family do.

I am the self-taught cook & baker, writer, photographer, designer, and dishwasher for the blog Sophisticated Gourmet (http://www.sophisticatedgourmet.com/). I am a New Yorker residing in New Jersey, and I recently wrote a cookbook called Hand Made Baking: Recipes to Warm The Heart.

I was brought up in a family of food lovers. We put food at the center of everything, and cook seasonally. During the winter months, smells of hand made cakes and flavorful pies dance through the house. In May, mustard greens and glorious green leaves of spinach are cooked down to make Saag (essentially: an Indian spiced spinach dish) the very way my great-grandmother taught our family to make it. In the summer there are several punnets of venetian-red strawberries and crimson tomatoes à gogo.

Growing up, restaurant visits were rare, and were only left for special occasions. We always cooked, and I loved that. Homemade Indian flatbreads were made daily– a family affair after my parents came home from work. Both of my parents come from two very different, yet similar, backgrounds. My father is a native of Pakistan, and was born into a (mostly) Punjabi family that breaths good food. My mother was born in New York to a father from Cádiz, Spain and a Mother from The Dominican Republic; although they lived a very frugal lifestyle here in the States, everything was always homemade and delicious.