Tiffin Asha

“She fell for the South Indian, then the South Indian food.” A phrase heard often at Tiffin Asha, this is how Sheila Bommakanti describes how Chef Elizabeth Golay began cooking the cuisine. The two met in Seattle, where Golay returned after graduating from California Culinary Academy. Intrigued by this, Bommakanti (whose family is from Andhra Pradesh) asked Golay if she had ever tasted South Indian food. The rest, as they say, is history. They moved to Boston where Sheila studied at Suffolk Law School, and Elizabeth started working under Chef Ana Sortun at Oleana in Cambridge. During this time Elizabeth felt inspired by the foods from South India and really started to study and recipe test for what would later become Tiffin Asha. The two went on to get married, and Bommakanti graduated from law school before they decided it was time to move back to the NW. Back in Seattle, Elizabeth spent the next few years at Poppy working for Jerry Traunfeld in Seattle as pastry assistant, and later leaving with the position of Pastry Chef.