New Delhi: Suman Shah, a culinary educator and spice entrepreneur of Indian origin, has been named the new Chef-in-Residence at the Boston Public Library’s Nutrition Lab. Shah will work at the Shaw Roxbury Branch of the library, where she will lead a year of free cooking and nutrition programmes, focussing on how food brings people together.
Through the programmes, centred on the theme “How We Gather”, Shah will explore the ways food, storytelling, culture, and shared meals help build community and connection. She is the third Chef-in-Residence at the library, following Glorya Fernandez in 2024 and Kayla Tabb in 2025..
Shah’s journey started from her hometown in Bihar, before she left for Bombay and eventually landed her in Boston. She already has eight years of experience as a culinary educator. She has taught hundreds of students through libraries, farmers’ markets, community education programmes, and private classes around the Boston area. Her work draws on seasonal cooking, cultural food traditions, and Ayurvedic principles, with a particular emphasis on spices, wellness, and the idea of food as medicine and as something healing.
In addition to that, Shah is also the founder of Fork On a Road, an Ayurvedic-inspired maker of spice blends and vegetarian meal kits rooted in the ancient Indian practice of using herbs, spices, and food to support overall wellness.
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The initiative
The Nutrition Lab, launched in 2021, serves as the Boston Public Library’s hub for nutritional literacy. It offers free culinary workshops and educational programmes designed to help patrons to develop cooking and meal-planning skills, learn about nutrition, and explore cultural food traditions.
As part of her residency, Shah will offer demonstrations, hands-on classes, and resources for patrons of different ages, and backgrounds. Library users will also be able to book virtual one-on-one “Gathering Guidance” sessions with Shah, where she will help them plan menus and provide personalised resources for meals and gatherings.
Shah’s programming will partly be shaped by feedback from community members. During recent meet-and-greet listening sessions, patrons discussed the foods that connect them to family, heritage and memory, while sharing ideas for workshops they would like to see at the Nutrition Lab.
Stephanie Chace, BPL’s Nutritional Literacy Coordinator, said Shah brings extensive experience in seasonal cooking and cultural food traditions to the programme. “Suman has a real gift for making cooking feel accessible and exciting,” she said, adding that the library was looking forward to the programmes she would bring to patrons.
The Chief-in-Residence programme, which began in 2024, is designed to expand community cooking programmes and promote nutritional literacy among library patrons.The initiative is supported by a grant from anonymous donors to the Boston Public Library Fund. All Nutrition Lab programmes and resources are free and open to all, reflecting the library’s broader commitment to providing accessible educational opportunities to the Boston community.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)