About Chef Sanjai
Rooted in Indian and Ayurvedic Food Wisdom
Chef Sanjai is an Indian chef, Ayurvedic culinary educator, and co-founder of Vedika Global, a California-based nonprofit devoted to Ayurveda, Yoga, Vedanta, and the living wisdom traditions of India.
Rooted in the food traditions of northern India, especially the culinary heritage of Awadh, he brings together authentic Indian flavor, Ayurvedic dietetics, and the healing intelligence of traditional spices, grains, legumes, vegetables, slow-cooked meats, oils, and seasonal foods.
Food as Medicine, Beauty, and Care
His culinary path began with a natural love for Indian cooking: the fragrance of spices, the beauty of seasonal ingredients, the generosity of family meals, and the joy of preparing food that nourishes both body and heart. Over time, this love matured into a deeper study of food as medicine, food as balance, and food as a sacred form of care.
For more than 25 years, Chef Sanjai has studied Ayurveda and India’s classical food wisdom, drawing inspiration from texts such as the Charaka Samhita and Bhavaprakasha, along with the living knowledge of Indian kitchens. His gift is making this wisdom practical, delicious, and accessible. He teaches people how food can support digestion, vitality, seasonal balance, and a deeper sense of well-being.
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A Teacher of Living Ayurveda
At Vedika Global, Chef Sanjai taught Ayurvedic cooking as part of a five-year Ayurveda education program that ran for a decade. Over the years, he has taught more than 200 vegetarian recipes to students from around the world, helping them understand how everyday cooking can become a path of nourishment, intelligence, and self-care.
His teaching style is warm, clear, practical, and memorable. Students appreciate his ability to explain Ayurveda through direct experience: the aroma of roasted spices, the timing of the flame, the role of ghee, the balance of rasa, the effect of season, and the quiet wisdom of a well-prepared meal.
Retreats, Workshops, and Sacred Offereings
Chef Sanjai has led Ayurvedic cooking classes, seasonal detox programs, retreat kitchens, wellness workshops, and spiritual gathering meals for groups ranging from intimate circles to 200 to 300 guests. He teaches independently and in collaboration with Acharya Shunya, bringing depth, hospitality, and grounded culinary wisdom to every setting.
Today, Chef Sanjai is invited to teach Ayurvedic cooking, Indian vegetarian cuisine, seasonal wellness, and food as healing in retreats, workshops, and educational programs. His work stands at the meeting place of taste and wellness, tradition and practicality, kitchen art and Ayurvedic intelligence.
Through every class and every meal, Chef Sanjai invites students to rediscover food as medicine, beauty, nourishment, and care.
Vedika Global: Where Ayurveda Comes Alive
Chef Sanjai co-founded Vedika Global in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2007 as a California-based nonprofit dedicated to the Vedic sciences of Ayurveda, Yoga, and Vedanta.
Within Vedika Global’s Ayurveda school, which offered a five-year education program for a decade, Chef Sanjai brought Ayurvedic wisdom directly into the kitchen. While students studied Ayurveda’s classical principles, he taught them how those teachings become real through food: spices, grains, legumes, vegetables, oils, taste, digestion, seasonality, and mindful preparation.
Over the years, he taught more than 200 vegetarian recipes, helping students experience Ayurveda not only as philosophy, but as a living, nourishing, practical science that can be cooked, tasted, and lived.
Ayurveda in Action at Vedika Global
A Living Ayurvedic Food Tradition
Chef Sanjai’s recipes are different. They are rooted in Ayurvedic principles and prepared with care, honesty, and discernment. He never relies on artificial colors, additives, preservatives, or flavor enhancers.
The result is food that is beautiful, deeply restorative, and truly unforgettable.
