From her earliest days in the tiny
Punjabi village of Tibbi, unconventionality
has marked Bal Arneson. Today,
18 years after leaving India for an arranged
marriage in Canada, and 16 years after fleeing
her traditional Vancouver in-laws, Bal is
flying high. She’s a cookbook author, National
Post food columnist, purveyor of her own line
of spices, and now the star of her own Food
Network show, Spice Goddess.
As a child, she remembers her mother telling
her that a girl’s job was to cook and to be a suitable bride. Bal loved the kitchen: the
drying of buffalo dung for the barbecue; the
smell of spices; the ritual of making roti. But
she also loved playing outside. “In the village,”
Bal recalls, “people would say, ‘Girls don’t do
that.’ But I knew in my heart I wasn’t being
bad — running, climbing trees, dreaming. If
you respect your inner voice, it will visit you
often. It leads you to who you’re meant to be.”
After she was married at age 20 to a Canadian
immigrant, also from India, her inner voice
told her she was on the wrong path, and Bal
left her husband, taking their baby girl with
her. Penniless, with no English or job skills,
and ostracized by her own family, she started
over. Bal cleaned houses, studied English and
eventually graduated from university; then
she got a master’s degree in education. To pay
her student loans, she catered dinners: Beef
masala. Papaya chicken. Curried cauliflower
with yams. Apple-and-fig chutney. Soon, word
got around: Bal could cook.
With a killer smile and in-your-face bravado,
Bal convinced a Vancouver publisher
that she could write a book on healthy, easy
Indian cooking. She had no culinary training — other than those years spent preparing
meals in India. “The kitchen in India was the
only place I was allowed to have freedom and
express myself,” she says. The publisher recognized
her talent and ambition. Her 2009 book,
Everyday Indian, is a national bestseller, and
her second one, Bal’s Quick and Healthy Indian,
will be released next spring. Her cooking has
a fan base of thousands.
Bal’s daughter, Anoop, is now 17, and their
family has expanded. In 2001, Bal married
Brad Arneson , now a massage-therapy student ,
and they have a seven-year-old son, Aaron.
In between shows, she also teaches autistic
children. She’s found a way to give back to the
place that started it all, too. A portion of the
proceeds from her spices will be donated to the
village of Tibbi to buy school supplies.
In her words
My proudest moment
was . . . having my daughter
see me get a university
diploma.
I wish I had more time
for . . . rock climbing.
I wish I was better at . . .
baking. We never had ovens
in India.
I wake up in the middle
of the night thinking
about . . . recipes — like
what to do with coriander
and tuna.
My favourite moment of
the day is . . . when I cook
with my kids: Aaron chops
and Anoop eats.
My guiltiest pleasure is . . .
diamonds and chocolates. I
love Tiffany & Co. jewellery
but don’t own any.
My perfect day would
be . . . spending time
with my girlfriends — on
a patio, by the ocean,
drinking martinis.