Savory French Toast sits amid a pot of chutney and a spice box or masala dabba. Photos: Chris Emeott
Mish Sen unwraps the art of Indian cooking for home chefs.
Edina resident Jackie Boucher became friends with Mish Sen only a couple years ago, but Sen’s impact on Boucher’s life has been transformative. “She’s been teaching me to cook Indian food,” Boucher says, adding that she appreciates that Sen pulls her out of her comfort zone.
“I can honestly say that until I started cooking Indian food, I didn’t even have turmeric in the house,” Boucher says. “She talked me into getting a bigger pan that I bought for some of the cooking that reminds me of a big old stir fry pan I had a long time ago.”
Learning how to cook Indian food from Sen has been a surprise. “She’s really good about simplifying and making it easy to follow the recipes,” she says. “I think Indian food is known to have complex flavors and uses a lot of different spices, so I think people think it’ll be too hard to cook. I think because it’s not as traditional for most people to cook Indian food in the U.S., when you do cook it, it’s a real treat. Sometimes, it’s even simple things—my daughter loves mangoes, and she loves the Mango Lassi in Mish’s cookbook.”
Sen lives in Chaska, and her cooking blog, cookbook and online videos have gained a following in the Twin Cities in recent years.
Mish Sen
“When I came to the country at 21, I only knew a handful of dishes,” Sen says. “And the cookbooks make it look and sound quite hard. Even though I was from the culture, I was overwhelmed. All of these steps, I didn’t even have the patience to read it.”
Motivated by frustration at not being able to cook and eat her familiar foods, Sen started experimenting with recipes. “I realized I took in a lot of the smells. I cook a lot by my nose, by olfactory guidance. When I was 16, I spent a year with my grandparents, so I got sort of an apprenticeship with [my grandmother]. Then I knew that the seeds were there—cooking brought me happiness,” she says. “When I came here and I was struggling, what helped me was tasting the food and getting whiffs of the smell, and I would let that guide how I would fix it.”
In 2022, after a career as a teacher and a marketing professional, Sen took her cooking business full time. “This was a good opportunity and an idea that was always brewing inside me, but I never had the time to complete,” she says. Her account grew by 12,000 followers in the first year. “I haven’t looked back,” she says.
Sen’s no-nonsense approach to Indian cooking has captured the interest of people like Boucher. “What’s great is that Mish inspired me to get out of my comfort zone and try cooking new dishes. With Minnesota casseroles, we don’t always cook with different spices or heat levels,” Boucher says. “I appreciate Mish’s cooking because I love the taste of all the spices in Indian food, so I enjoyed changing up what I cook at home.”
Some of Boucher’s favorite recipes from Sen are her Chicken Curry, Chana Masala and the Uthappam. “I’m still learning to make some of the other ones, but those ones I’ve definitely made more than a few times,” she says.
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