Chai Pani Decatur hosts Barkha Cardoz to celebrate her book, With Love & Masalas
On July 8, Chai Pani Decatur welcomed entrepreneur, author, and chef Barkha Cardoz for a special pop-up dinner celebrating her debut cookbook, With Love & Masalas. Hosted by Chef Meherwan Irani, the evening brought together food lovers and community members for a heartfelt culinary experience. Barkha is the founder of the Cardoz Legacy, a foundation established in honor of her late husband, the acclaimed Chef Floyd Cardoz, and continues their shared mission of uplifting people through food.
The recent cookbook pop-up dinner at Chai Pani Decatur offered Atlantans a vibrant introduction to Chef Barkha Cardoz and her work to carry forward the legacy of her late husband, Chef Floyd Cardoz. Hosted in partnership with Chai Pani’s own Chef Sahar, the evening spotlighted the Cardoz Legacy spice blends and celebrated the enduring connection between food, memory, and heritage.
To open the dinner, both chefs spoke about their shared family roots across the Indian subcontinent—especially along the India-Pakistan border—and the culinary legacies that shaped their home kitchens. Their collaboration resulted in a heartfelt menu that blended homestyle traditions, featuring a confluence of Sindhi and Pakistani dishes alongside festive crowd-pleasers like a live pani-puri station and a signature mango rum cocktail named “Mother’s Mango.”
As guests mingled, the Chai Pani team circulated an array of appetizers: lamb chapli tikkis, fruit skewers dusted with chaat masala and bhujiya, Sindhi pakoras, and more. The restaurant was closed for the evening and transformed into an intimate, private gathering with long communal tables seating twelve guests each. Once
seated, the diners were treated to a family-style feast featuring seasonal vegetable raitas, smoky baingan bharta, roti, naan, chhole, lotus root in yogurt, apple chaat, and goat curry. Dessert was a highlight: a malai kulfi with peach compote, reminiscent of the classic Hyderabadi khubani ka meetha. As Chef Barkha reflected during the meal, “These are the flavors that define home.” Chef Sahar added that the dessert represented “an elegant marriage of two interwoven cuisines—Indian and Pakistani.”
Chef Irani opened the evening by speaking about the broader purpose of the dinner: using food as a vehicle for community and change. He shared his vision of restaurants as spaces not just for eating, but for gathering around meaningful causes. That spirit guided a fundraiser held during the event for Dharavi Diary, a community center based in Mumbai’s Dharavi slum that provides free STEAM education and career resources for children. While much of the center’s daily work is fueled by local activism, Chef Irani noted that contributions from events like this help support their ongoing programming. The evening raised $800 for the organization.
Guests received an assorted box of masalas from Burlap & Barrel and Spicewalla, along with a copy of With Love & Masala, as part of the event.
- Nandita Godbole
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