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MEET THE CHEF WITH NO STOMACH
When Natasha Diddee lost her stomach to tumours, she decided to turn her life around with food
Ahome chef who doesn’t have a stomach, but is driven by her passion for simple, home-cooked food. This is exactly who Natasha Diddee is. She became the gutless foodie (her name on social media platforms) and turned a setback into a strength. Here’s her story.
THE END IS ONLY THE BEGINNING
About five years ago, Diddee found out that due to prolonged stress, she had developed tumours in her stomach, and her entire stomach had to be removed. “Every single day we face stress in some way or the other. We are taught a lot of things, but nobody teaches us about life,” she says.
The Pune-based home chef took it as an opportunity to turn her life around, and start living. “You can only draw strengths from yourself. There was a reason I chose the term gutless foodie; I could’ve chosen something like gutsy foodie or anything [else]. But I chose this. There was a great thought put behind it.”
Diddee says, “Something big has to happen in your life [for you] to go deep within and introspect. This is what happened to me. I [also] lived a very shallow life till then. I had a choice: I can either choose to move on to the next event in my life, or I can choose to make my life into something where I can help people.” As a home chef, she cooks dishes from scratch, and photographs them on her mobile phone. Every post, every dish, has a story that she explains in the caption.
FOOD TRAIL
Growing up in Mumbai, Diddee was exposed to different cuisines from an early age. “My father is half Punjabi-halfParsi, and my mother is Maharashtrian. In my school, there were kids from different religions and cultures. We’d share dabbas (tiffins),” she says, calling herself a bhukkad (glutton). “I’d ring the bell of people’s houses and say, ‘My mother doesn’t give me food, can you please give me food?’ My mother had no idea of this!” This mischievous streak is still alive. On a holiday to Hanoi, she made friends with a local street food vendor, and invited herself to his house for dinner. “You can’t change your DNA,” she laughs.
KNOWING THE BODY
Since Diddee had her stomach removed, she is allowed to eat several mini meals throughout the day, except for rice. Over the years, she has realised what suits her and what doesn’t. “I have my cheat days, but then my body reacts. I don’t have gastric juices anymore. My intestines have to do the breaking down and digestion. There is a serious syndrome called the dumping syndrome. My entire stomach, and the bends, were removed. So what I eat, goes directly into my intestine. If I eat too fast, or if I eat food that’s too heavy, my body goes through symptoms: I either start sweating profusely. I might even need to sit down and not move. Or I’ll yawn extensively. I might need to go to the loo and excrete it. I can get any of these, or all! That’s my cue ki bas ab zyada ho gaya. It has been five years and it’s still not easy,” she says.
Does this come with any other side-effects? “Vitamin B is produced in the stomach; I don’t produce it, which affects my memory. I have to get a shot once a month for as long as I live,” she says.
WHAT’S COOKING?
As a home chef, she cooks a lot of dishes, but it’s Indian cuisine that she swears by. “We’ve got such diversity in our cuisine. I’ll have to take 5,000 janams (births) just to learn Indian cuisine,” says Diddee, whose comfort food is dal (pulses). “We all go back to our roots.”
This 70s child, in her own words, is not friends with technology. It was a friend who created an Instagram account for her. Her follower count? 70,800 and growing!