A lifelong vegetarian, Geetha raised 2 sons in NYC exurbs, prepared their after-school meals (who skipped flavorless and unhealthy cafeteria lunches K-12), festive parties at home and managed the Ridge High School cafeteria during weekend Forensics tournaments for hundreds of hungry, fiercely debating students from the TriStates for over 6 years!

Spoon and Sprout started out as Grab ‘Em Snacks, making plantain chips from freshly peeled green plantains, organic spices, high-oleic oils, and sea-salt. After including a vegetarian cafe near Princeton, NJ ( Spoon & Sprout ) and running it for 2+ years, Geetha reinvented it in Brooklyn along three lines of plant-based offerings – Catering for Corporate lunches, weekend Pop-Up events, and Snacks for the CPG market.

Mostly self-taught in famous Spice Capitals of the world – India and Malaysia, Geetha promotes nutritionally well-balanced ingredient mix of

  • perishables (seasonal veggies, from known farmers practicing Organic or IPM),
  • non-perishables e.g. Pulses (legumes, whole grains, beans) – to address nutrient-density while minimizing highly processed meat-substitutes like Seitan
  • herbs/spices, mostly organic – to lead with flavor

In NYC, Geetha worked as Director of Finance & Accounting for Corbin Hill Food Project and frequently volunteered her craft and time: at NYC Healthy Food Alliance to train kitchen staff of Brooklyn P.S. 261; appeared as Guest Chef on EarthDay 2019 at Citi’s (Global Headquarters), weekends as a Demo Chef at GrowNYC Union Square Green Markets, fundraisers for “Immigrant Families Together” and local farmers; Brooklyn Borough Hall’s vegan meetups.

She explored San Antonio in 2019 and 2020 performing Cooking demos at SA Pearl Farmer’s Market, Natural Grocers stores and was the solo Plant Based vendor at Alamo Heights Farmers Market. In 2020, after the onset of Covid-19 Geetha decided to go back to the Drawing Board – won a scholarship, received her Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate from Center for Nutrition Studies at eCornell and started curating a SoyFree Tempeh, a Fermented protein very popular in S.E. Asia as the Foundation for her prepared dishes.

Her passion is to educate and help any nutrition-desert to incorporate balanced plant-based dishes into people’s lifestyles – a proven way to a) indulge healthily, b) boost one’s immunity and c) to make an impact on the sustainability of communities, towns and some day, the Planet!

Geetha made Houston her home in 2021, plans to grow her Plant Based prepared foods and snacks and have a Retail presence soon – until then, you can order her products at Spoon and Sprout and follow us on social media – FBIG, and LI for the growing number of retail stores in HTX that carry her products !