“It’s an intuitive process that evolves as I go along, as I don’t follow a set template while styling.”

The self-taught Indian chef, currently based in the northern Indian city of Gurgaon, says her passion for cooking was ignited when she was barely nine.

“I’d spend hours watching my grandmother cook in her kitchen. Her food was a labour of love; she cooked patiently and everything that came out of her kitchen was sheer perfection,” says the mother of two.

Originally from Dehradun, a scenic valley nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas, Sehgal’s aesthetic sensibilities are inherited from her artistic family.

“My mom was a passionate painter who spent all her free time lost in the world of colours and canvases. My scientist dad was a poet. He is retired now, but still devotes most of his time to gardening and writing.”

Sehgal recalls her mother sending her off for countless painting lessons in the hope that her daughter had inherited her talent.

“I enjoyed the classes, however not enough to excel. My father, on the other hand, felt that I shared his love for languages, so I should pursue a masters in English literature.”

So English literature it was for the young Sehgal, although she admits that her “heart always belonged in the kitchen”.

After marrying her high school sweetheart, a passionate hotelier, she lived an itinerant life, moving across six countries and travelling to many more. In each new country, Sehgal took up a different vocation harnessing her creative talent. She worked as a banker, public relations executive, hotel manager and a clothes designer.

In her free time, she gave into her artistic instincts and created food art, which is how @supaintsonplates was born.

“Over the past decade, I’ve worked with various renowned brands in the UAE and India. I’ve enjoyed developing recipes for them and styling and photographing these recipes for their websites and marketing campaigns.

“My global exposure enables me to work with various cuisines and ingredients. I also curate pop-ups for restaurants and cafes showcasing modern cuisine incorporating local ingredients. I also train their staff to execute my recipes,” Sehgal says.

Currently, her revenue stream is derived primarily from the brands she works with on social media. However, the chef says that as a freelancer, her work comes only in phases.

“There are days when I’m inundated, but there are also spells of being not so busy. However, there are brands I’ve worked with repeatedly and for those assignments I get paid extremely well. The festive season is also hectic when there’s no moment to breathe.”

Sehgal uses the lulls to engage with her audience. “I do not differentiate between paid or unpaid content. I pour my heart and soul into my work irrespective,” she says.

Why does she call herself a plant-forward chef in her bio? “Well, I grew up in a family that loves vegetables. My father would cultivate the freshest produce in our back yard.”

Carrying on that legacy, Sehgal says she also wants to share her love for nourishing food with the world.

“I want everyone to cook my recipes and understand that good food cooked with fresh ingredients tastes brilliant and we can cook a healthier version of any of our favourite dishes by applying imagination,” she says.

Using local, seasonal produce such as legumes, millets and organic vegetables, Sehgal has developed an archive of hundreds of recipes and culinary techniques.

Also playing a pivotal part in her culinary adventures is good-quality cookware. The chef says that, just like fresh ingredients, the right cookware is pivotal to bring out the flavour in dishes.

The chefs turning food presentation into an art form for the Instagram age

“Food cooked in good-quality metals not just tastes great, but is also free of toxins,” she says. Heavy-bottomed stainless steel and cast iron vessels are her go-to cookware; she avoids using non-stick, aluminium and plastic ones.

Despite her success, there have been “several times” when she felt disheartened enough to give up content creation entirely.

“As a content creator on Instagram, I depend completely on the app to decide the fate of my content on any given day,” she says. “The algorithm keeps changing and we’re continuously trying to figure out how to keep up with the changes. There are days when my content reaches its audience and days when the reach is limited.”

It’s on these slow days that Sehgal feels frustrated. “Since I work alone, without a team, it is extremely difficult for me to sustain the slow patches,” she says. However, at such moments her growing social media audience provides motivation for her.

“Over the last nine years, I have built a large supportive family who keep inspiring me. People send me messages that my reels are ‘meditative’ and ‘heartwarming’. Some also share that my work has taught them to eat better and plate better. This is very heartening,” she says.

Sehgal shares one message from a follower that she found particularly poignant. “It was from a lady whose mother was suffering from a terminal disease. She hadn’t eaten for weeks but after seeing one of my videos, she asked to be fed, pronto. My eyes welled up when I heard that.”