#220 Menopause and South Asian women with Chef Romy Gill MBE

1st Nov 2023

Chef Romy Gill MBE, who is a dear friend, is on the podcast today sharing her culinary wisdom, her energy and passion for food as well as her voice for women of colour and the stigma that still surrounds the menopause.

Romy is a celebrity Indian chef, food/travel writer and broadcaster based in the southwest of England. She was the owner and head chef at Romy’s Kitchen and in 2016 she was appointed an MBE in the Queen’s 90th Birthday Honours list. 

You’ll find her on BBC1’s Ready Steady Cook, Sunday Brunch, The One Show, Country Life, Celebrity MasterChef, The Hairy Bikers’ Comfort Food, James Martin’s Saturday Morning and she is also a regular on BBC Radio 4’s Food Programme. Her debut cookbook in September, 2019. Zaika – Vegan Recipes from India. Her second book, On The Himalayan Trail, is out now and available from bookshops and online retailers. Romy is writing her next book with Hardie Grant which is out next year in Autumn 2024. 

Today we talk about her lived experience of the menopause, how changing her training from mostly running based to include strength training completely shifted her weight. We also talk about women from SA backgrounds and why it’s still an uphill battle to break down the taboo of women’s health in general, plus the spices with medicinal properties, how to combine flavourful ingredients for health and why the backbone of Indian cooking is healthier than most people think.

You can watch this on YouTube, and you’ll also see what Romy was able to cook up with a squash, some tofu and the Doctor’s kitchen pantry of spices in under 20 minutes. Trust me, you’ll want to see that recipe!