Lavanya is an Indianapolis-born, India-bred restaurant critic, recipe editor and food writer. As a South Indian vegetarian straddling two worlds, she views food as the cross-cultural connection that brings people together. She believes that food is simply a lens through which culture and community congregate and that we can learn so much about each other by educating ourselves about what’s on each others' plates.

Along with being a Tamil-speaking Hoosier from Hamilton County, Indiana, Lavanya also has multiple digestive and intestinal illnesses including gastroparesis, visceral hyperalgia, pelvic floor dyssynergia, anismus, and total colonic dysmotility. Not only does this make being a food journalist, recipe developer, and food writer a 'bit' more challenging, but over the last 5 years since being diagnosed and undergoing multiple hospitalizations and surgeries, Lavanya has aimed to raise awareness about invisible chronic illness within the Indian diaspora and immigrant communities here in Carmel, Indiana and hopes that sharing her story helps others learn about complex motility disorders and the unique challenges that individuals with invisible illness face. On her way to her 25th surgery — an ileostomy — she looks forward to continuing to eat, experience, and explore her way through Hamilton County as a 30-something straddling life, still, between her favorite two places in the world: Indiana and India.