Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel
On June 22, 2006 South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported, "Grocery shopping can get pretty humdrum and meal planning a drag. So when I heard that Whole Foods Markets are putting some interesting ethnic items on their prepared foods menus, I wanted to meet Rashne Desai, the woman behind the meals. We got together at the Plantation store, where I learned Desai grew up in Bombay in a Zoroastrian family. Living in a religious minority originally from Persia, they ate 'Parsi' food, but made with Indian spices. 'We took Indian flavors and added to them,' Desai says. Much as Cubans have sofrito, this cooking has a flavor base made up of sauteed onions, garlic, ginger, jalapenos, spices and tomatoes. Today, as an executive coordinator of prepared foods for Whole Foods, Desai is re-creating these flavors for the company's Florida stores. It's been a long journey. In 1970, Desai came to the United States to attend school in Hartford, Conn. 'I hated my first year here. It was too quiet.' She was used to the meat, vegetable, flower and milk vendors coming to the door. 'There was no one on the streets in this country,' she says. But by her second year, she adapted. Her mother mailed her the spices she needed to cook the flavors she craved. And an Indian professor invited her to join his family for meals. After graduation, she worked for Citibank in New York City. 'There I had tons of Indian food,' she says. And she enjoyed living in an urban center. But when she reached the point in her career that she'd have to get an MBA to advance, she decided to learn to cook instead."