about
New York | London
the abridged:
Roopa is a plant-based chef and sustainability advocate based in NYC. She grew up in a small farm town and her earliest memories filled with food and the outdoors. As a child of immigrants, cooking and eating were her way of connecting to her roots.
Amrut was born from her pursuit of purpose and her search to fill her time with things that bring her energy and joy—eating and connecting with others.
Her food draws from her South Asian heritage, childhood memories, traveling adventures, and (selfishly) whatever she feels like eating that day.
When she’s not cooking (or more likely, eating), she likes to paint, watch documentaries about ants, practice yoga, drink tea, and look at the stars.
the unabridged:
Amrūt, meaning "nectar" in Sanskrit, is a plant-based supper club that uses food as a medium for connection, both to each other and to the earth. Through intimate apartment dinner parties, pop-ups around the city, and collaborations with artists, we curate immersive dining experiences that spark an examination of our relationship to the planet and climate change through what we eat. This ranges from incorporating sustainability brands in our menus to designing climate action dinners working alongside with the non-profit Rethink Food, and the climate community Soapbox Project. At these events, we craft meals from upcycled produce and facilitate conversation on sustainability topics with the goal of inspiring community-building and local climate action.
The creation of Amrut was a response to a period in my life when I felt disconnected—both from myself and the things that bring me joy. I started small, first inviting friends over for dinner on the weekends to catch-up. These moments of (re)connection were the eventual spark for creating something bigger. I took a sabbatical from work and studied cooking in London at Le Cordon Bleu and it was an amazing experience. Above all, it put me back in touch with my joy, which at that time felt impossible. After coming back to New York, I wanted to create a space where food could be a point of connection, community, and joy for other people as well and launched Amrūt.
In part reckoning with what it means to be an “adult” and the terrifying freedom to create what you want in the world, I find myself harkening back consistently to food memories I had as a child: eating sticky panchamrita off the palm of my hand, asking for more pickle with my yogurt rice. Through cooking, I feel like I am able to reinvent, recreate, and re-ground myself in the things that remind me of home. I hope that I am also able to communicate this experience of connection (to the land, to each other, to oneself) to the people who eat my food. I think in the end, Amrut represents a return to something more ancient, a reminder of the cycles that have always been there–even if we’ve moved further from them. I think it’s a manifestation of the really basic, simple things that bring us joy: food and each other.