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“ I am a 5th generation descendant of a family who traded spices since the supremacy of the British East India Company; my great great grandfather was a
captain of one of the Company’s spice ships. He transported prized spices from Trancobar in South India to trading ports in the Malay-Indonesian region.
My great grandfather's family lived in Trancobar and traded spices, which then was a lucrative Portuguese trading port. My grandfather continued this trade
when the family relocated from Burma to Malacca. They were buyers of large proportion of the spices which had been brought there – cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon,
pepper, coriander and more. My grandmother artistically took the whole spices and combined them into Masalas and Spice Rubs and opened the family’s first spice
bazaar called Spice King. My mother made spices her business and her life at a bustling local market in Malaysia in the early 1950s.
As a Spice Merchant’s Daughter I was exposed to the world of spice throughout my childhood.”
Christina Arokiasamy began her culinary journey as a school girl in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She says “I could always smell my house before I could see it.
Alighting from my turmeric colored school bus, I would tip toe across the veranda which my mother had turned into a bright canvas painted with spices, all arranged on zinc plates for drying
under the tropical sun.” As a young girl Christina used to help her mother ready spices for grinding at a nearby mill, staining her hands yellow and earning the nickname ‘the girl
with yellow hands’ at school. Many of her early years were spent creating food with love in her rustic kitchen in Malaysia.
When Christina came to America, she cooked in her kitchen just as she did back home. The delightful fragrances of her home-cooked meals prompted neighbors to remark, "I've never smelled
anything as exotic as this before." That led to dinner invitations and to requests for recipes and then for lessons. Many found her food extraordinarily pleasurable. Today, she has gained
a loyal following and receives constant testimonies from her students.
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Christina Arokiasamy (Aro-Kia-Samy), one of the most recognized teaching chefs in America and Southeast Asia; is highly regarded for her unique
flavor development and authentic Southeast Asian cuisine. She had worked for some of Southeast Asia's premier restaurants including the world class resorts Four Seasons Bali,
and Four Seasons Chiang Mai, Thailand. Christina has enabled thousands of home cooks to bring a new depth and dimension to their favorite dishes, for over a decade.
