It feels like it was just last week that we said goodbye to 2013 and welcomed the New Year. My calendar however tells me that it’s just another three days to February! Though January seems to have sped by in a race of some sort, it has been a good month for me.
After the food photography workshop I held in Chennai last year, I had a lot of request for more workshops along the same line. And so it was on the 17th of January that I went off to Bangalore to teach a workshop on the Basics of Food Photography. The venue was a café-cum-restaurant called Under The Mango Tree in Laurel Lane at Richmond Town. The name comes from the fact that the restaurant is built around a huge mango tree!
Nirmala Balakrishnan who owns and runs the restaurant was generous enough to allow us the use of her restaurant for the day. She and her staff were also extremely helpful with arranging and setting up everything as we wanted it. I have to also mention that the lunch they served was good and the falafel, the bruschetta, and the lasagna was worth mentioning.
The workshop in Chennai was on the 20th of January and held at The Kettle Café in Anna Nagar, who were once again, kind enough to allow us the use of their place. I had my previous workshop in Chennai here last year and the staff was extremely courteous and helpful as always. This café is well known for the variety of speciality teas they serve and tea workshops they conduct.
Food, photography and friends, both old and new, are an excellent combination in my opinion, and both my workshops meant that I had a thoroughly enjoyable couple of days meeting some old friends and making some more new ones. And I’ll leave you with some glimpses of both the workshops at Bangalore and Chennai…
At Under The Mango Tree in Bangalore:
Suma, Nandita, Myself, Aarti, Deepthi, Shini,Madhur. (Image courtesy : Nandita Iyer)
At Work.
Some More Work
A Vegetarian Lasagna With Spinach and Cottage Cheese.
It’s All Work
On The Menu
On Lunch Break
Lunch
The Chocolate Mousse Cake
Under The Mango Tree – the Cafe Area
Under The Mango Tree – The Restaurant Area (and the Famed Mango Tree)
And at Under The Kettle Tea Café in Chennai:
Deepasri, Myself, Asha, Pari, Prema and Pratibha (Image courtesy : Pratibha Jain)
The Kettle Café
Inside the Café
The Kettle Café version of Crostini.
Apple Pie Filling With Ice-cream and Caramel Sauce
I'm Aparna and My Diverse Kitchen is my ovo-lacto vegetarian food blog where you'll find recipes, food stories & photography. I've been blogging since 2007 and believe the kitchen, and the dining table (by extension) is really the heart of a home. 
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