About Bhavna & The Modern Desi
Definition: Desi (noun) refers to a person of South Asian birth or descent who lives abroad.
Bhavna Kalra Shivalkar is a Mumbai-born, Sydney-based entrepreneur with 12 years of experience in the food industry, focusing on Indian cuisine and cultural immersion.
Bhavna is the founder and CEO of The Modern Desi Co, an Indian food venture in Australia that merges traditional culinary techniques with modern business strategies.
Bhavna is known for designing distinctive Indian cooking classes and food tours that provide cultural insights and challenge misconceptions about Indian food.
How my journey started …
India is not just the country of my birth. It is also where my soul feels at home.
It is where my heart belongs, it is a country imprinted in my DNA and a place that I am passionate about. It is also where my mother lives, so it is truly my motherland.
Many years ago I started a journey in sydney where I tried to share my love for Indian cuisine, history and storytelling with a blog called 'Justagirlfromaamchimumbai'. It was a way for me to document my homesickness through food.
Slowly it grew, I wrote many stories, published a lot of recipes.
Over time my hobby became a small side hustle…
It eventually led to a business called 'The Modern Desi Co' where I conducted cooking classes, pop-up dinners and food tours in Sydney, showing my guests the diversity and variety of Indian food.
It has been a pleasure to get them to try proper home cooking, where we do not dumb down the spices and my menu has never included the standard Butter chicken, Naan, Madras curry and other dishes which is what most people think we eat back home.
Introducing culinary and cultural tours of India…
It has been 6 years, since that small business became a little more serious. In 2025 I launched 'The Modern Desi Tours'. where I took a small group of people to Delhi, Agra, Jaipur and Lucknow and showed them a part of India that I know and love.
