Roshni is a Self-Advocate with a Mission to Feed!

Roshni Kashyap was born to make food. The young woman with Down syndrome started a chutney business and is poised to launch a cookbook. However, she has many other talents and her whole life to explore them. Including publishing a book of poetry. Available on Amazon is Don't Forget You're Beautiful.

 

TRANSCRIPT

 

Roshni is a Self-Advocate with a Mission to Feed!

 

00:04

Hello and welcome to another edition of DDA's podcast, Encouraging Abilities. I am your host, DDA Communications Manager, Evan Kelly. Now lately we've been talking a lot about inclusion and accessibility with a variety of interviewees, but today we're chatting with a very interesting young lady, her name is Roshni Kashyap, to be clear, and I got this from your website. She likes to be called Rosh for short. So that's so much easier for me. Now Rosh is a self advocate with Down syndrome.

 

00:33

who is building a chutney empire. Food is in her blood. She's been cooking with her mom for as long as she can remember and completed the food service careers program at Vancouver Community College. Since then has launched three different chutneys and even wrote a book on her. Now on her website, she says, and I really like this, they say I have Down syndrome, but that doesn't get me down. That's such a wonderful outlook on life. Welcome to the podcast, Rosh. Thank you.

 

01:03

So tell us a little bit about how you started being involved with cooking. I had a passion of cooking since I was a little girl. And ever since then, I've seen my grandmother and my mom, like, be in cooking. And that's how I actually loved cooking. Now, do you come up with your own recipes? Are they somewhat sort of passed down from family members?

 

01:28

Actually when it comes to um, my chutney business, I actually had some help come up with my recipes Can you tell me a little what how do you settle on the final ingredients of these recipes? I'm every ingredient actually um, so I do get it from a wholesaler and sometimes I have at home Mm-hmm. Yeah, like I get things in bulk sometimes even the crime berries

 

01:56

and cranberries. And so how many different chutneys do you sell right now? At the moment, I'm thinking of like a backseat of that because I'm going to start on a different vegetable also in the food category. Oh, you're gonna do something different other than chutneys? Yes, that's right. What do you gonna produce? Actually, I'm going to be producing a recipe book.

 

02:25

Oh, wow. A recipe book. So how many recipes are you going to include in that? At the moment, it's 30. I am going to add more. Well, 30. That's a lot of recipes. I don't think I could come up with 30 recipes or ideas to cook with. So are you as what you're saying is people can't get your chutneys now? Is that the idea? I think it's seasonal at the moment. And it's been a while since I made the chutneys. Okay.

 

02:53

Is there any still available or should we just wait for the recipe book?

 

02:58

I'm you can do a bit of both as and you can contact rosh's chutneys Let me know if you're interested in some and then I can make according To whoever wants. Oh, I see what you mean. Okay, so and just to be clear that's rosh's chutneys calm rosh's chutneys calm and all the contact information is there so that sounds really really good

 

03:25

And so this cookbook, what kind of recipes are you sort of focusing on? Is this, you are Indian, so are the recipes in this new recipe book going to focus on Indian cuisine, or are you going to branch out a little bit? It is going to be like international cooking, actually. Oh, wow. Can you give us an idea of one or two of the recipes? One of them is a sweet dish.

 

03:55

Indians read this and one is translated to says sour potatoes. Sour potatoes. That sounds good. It's I know a mashed potato dish that involves a lot of sour cream. Is it that kind of thing? No, it's a Indian style type of cooking. Wow, that sounds good. We will definitely get a copy of that book here at DDA. When when are you expecting that to be finished?

 

04:23

Actually, that's going to take a little while for it to get up and running. Once it starts up and running, then I will let you know for sure. Absolutely. Then you could like sell it on Amazon or something like that where people can print it off and you have the service they can bind it for you and everything like that. Or are you actually trying to publish this and get it into stores or something? As of now, I have it as a PDF form. Soon I am going to have a physical book.

 

04:52

Hopefully that'll be really great So you've mentioned as well on your website that your sister helps you out a lot is so she's still helping She's still helping you a lot with your chutneys and your cookbook She is helping me. Yes, she helps me a lot That's excellent. What about your parents? I know they've been very very supportive of your cooking too, right? Yes, that is true They have been very supportive of my interests and in the food world

 

05:20

Well, it sounds like you're really doing some great stuff here. Now you also mentioned on your website that you try using local ingredients as much as possible. Is that really important for you? That is very important in multiple ways. Like, um, that also helps benefits when it comes to, um, the spiciness cycle involved in the food. And it's really, really good stuff that I'm providing.

 

05:48

and you really want to focus on healthy ingredients too, yeah? Correct. That's excellent. It also mentions you were, I don't know, sort of change the subject a little bit here, it mentions that you're in UBC. Are you still at UBC or are you finished there? Actually I graduated from UBC. Amazing. What were you taking? I graduated under Film and Theatre.

 

06:18

film and theater. Yeah. So you're doing a lot of different things here Raj. You're cooking. So are you doing something with the film and theater as well in your life? I do have a YouTube channel. So I put whatever I feel like on it.

 

06:38

Yeah, I noticed that I looked at it a little bit. So you've got some food stuff and a bunch of other different things. So are you hoping to get into like film direction or acting or something like that? I don't know yet. I haven't figured out my career path yet. That's a hard one to figure out sometimes. Yeah.

 

07:03

Now, I know you've got this recipe book coming, but you've written another book, haven't you? My very first book was called Don't Forget Your Beautiful. That's actually on Amazon at the moment. And that's called Don't Forget Your Beautiful? Yes, that's my poetry book. Oh, wow. So what do you... tell me a little bit about your poetry.

 

07:31

I used to write poetry until I got help to, I've been writing, written a lot of poetry. And I had it all with me. I don't know, one day a friend of mine just took my poetry and helped me turn it into a book with paintings and everything. Now, did you do the paintings and the illustrations yourself? The illustrations, yes, but the paintings is now a friend of mine.

 

07:58

What do you know when it comes to poetry? What do you like to write about? Sometimes about love, sometimes it was something funny, something that makes you feel happy. And sometimes it may just question yourself as a mixture of everything. A mixture of everything. Speaking of mixtures, let's go back to chutneys because I'm a big fan. Can you take me through the process of making one of your chutneys?

 

08:28

The thing is, a true chef never shares her secrets. Oh, yes, I guess that is quite true. So, OK, I won't I won't ask you further to divulge your your your chutney secrets. I was not about ingredients, but is there a sort of a process you just in terms of the cooking, is there cooking times that are important to anything like that?

 

08:56

like um cooking is my passion and i do it i cook out of love and when i can do the labor of doing it well it's worth making cranberry chutney because chutney is in my background cranberries on bc that yeah i thought what the heck let's make something yum yeah the words certainly are known for our cranberries our cranberries out here aren't we yes um

 

09:23

I've also noticed on your Instagram page that you have a doggy. I'm a dog person. We love our dogs over here at BDA. What kind of dog is she? He is a Labradoodle. Labradoodle. What's his name? Buddy. Buddy. Oh, that's great. So when back to UBC, how long did you go there for? I was there for five years. Five years. And so have you got a degree in film studies and theater?

 

09:53

I did get a certificate of completion. Okay. That's amazing. Did you have a lot of fun there? Oh, it was amazing. I love being on UPC campus. It was very worth it. Oh, wow. It sounds like you have an amazing life going here. And then it doesn't sound like Down Syndrome has been much of a hindrance for you. I don't let that get me down. As in, I don't want people to see me as that.

 

10:22

If you see me as a person that's good enough. And so why is being a self advocate important to you? People need to hear the voice behind the girl and the girl behind the mask of having Down syndrome. And what would you what what sort of message would you like to send to other self advocates?

 

10:48

That's a good question actually. My message would be if you have some sort of disability, don't let that get to yourself and make sure that you are self-aware of what you're doing. If you're passionate about it, just go for it. And if you have a voice, run with it. That's excellent. Very, very well said. So where do you see yourself in the next five years?

 

11:18

Oh, that's a good question. I don't know where I think myself at the moment. I have no clue. Maybe I'm hoping somewhere in the film line or in the music line, one of the two. Okay, so what I'm a musician myself. So what what is it about music that you do? I actually write my own rap songs. Oh, wow. Really? Okay. Yes. That's amazing.

 

11:47

I have recorded a few of my rap songs but not too many yet. Okay, are those on your YouTube channel? No, not at the moment. Yeah, that's uh, making music is an interesting process. I've been doing it for many, many years. Wow. So anybody that can get up there and rap, I doff my hat to you. That's amazing. What do you rap about?

 

12:11

Um, um, I've got so many rap songs that one is called super solo. One is one is about, um, I don't want to name drop brand away chip, but I'm just gonna call it chip song. Chip chip song. Now you say you want to name drop as in who when I say that it's actually called the Pringle rap. Oh, that chip song like as in as in potato chips. Yes.

 

12:39

Here's a fun fact, did you know Pringles are made with mashed potatoes? I did not know that actually. Now you know. That's how they get them all the same shape. I had no idea about that. Interesting cooking tips. Anything else to add, Rosh? It sounds like you're a really, really busy person just having fun with life. Fun fact, there's another part of my studying that I have been doing lately.

 

13:06

And it's an online program that I am doing. An online program? Yes. Okay. What would that be? Vancouver Island University. And it's an entrepreneurship program, online program I'm doing. An entrepreneurship program. Oh, you mean like, oh, you mean for studies?

 

13:31

For studies, I'm just going to be close to my cookbook. Oh, that's what you do in your cookbook too. Oh, that sounds great. Well, I got to be honest, we're looking forward to that cookbook. We will definitely order a few and we'll like we we here at DDA. We run a bunch of group homes for for for adults and community living. And we would be happy to distribute that book to all of our group homes. That would be a good thing to do and get your recipes out there. Yeah, that's true.

 

14:01

like distribute maybe my poetry book. We can do I will help you do that if that's available online and if you you know you and I are in contact you can send me the links I'd be happy to publish that on our social media channels to get your name out there that would be easy. Yes you can also find me on my social media platforms. Yes are your is your social media connected to your Rosh Chutney's website?

 

14:30

one of them is but not all of them are okay we'll have to all have to uh... i know i know i've seen your youtube channel but i've got a i think i've got a are you on facebook and twitter as well uh... it's not on twitter but it is on facebook okay we will we will find you there and and is is is your your first book available on the link there my very first book will be actually on

 

14:54

On Amazon, except I don't forget your beautiful, my poetry book will be on Amazon. If you just tap up my name. I will do that. And I'm going to, I'm going to put that on social media right now. Right. I'll write as soon as we're done here. Awesome. Well, Roche, it's been really great having you on the show. I think we've covered a lot of bases here. Our guest today has been Rochne Kashyap, a self-described foodie who has Down syndrome.

 

15:21

but that doesn't seem to stop her at all. She started her own chutney business after completing courses at Vancouver Community College and at UBC. You can still possibly order some chutneys on her website and that's www. She is about to publish her first cookbook, so we're anticipating that. That's gonna be awesome. So, Rosh, thanks again for joining us.

 

15:47

Thank you very much. Now you have been listening to DDA's Encouraging Abilities podcast. I'm Evan Kelly. See you next time. All right.