About us

Who we are

I am Ambujam Ramasubramaniam, or simply Radhika, an ex-Google employee in Hyderabad, whose greatest interest in life has always been traditional Tamil cuisine. Every free minute was used in trying out old recipes, which I found from various sources, mainly ancient cookery books and senior lady members of my family. A further inspiration was my great aunt, the famous Smt. Meenakshi Ammal the doyen of Tamil cooking and the author of the best selling cookery book trilogy, “Cook and See” or ‘Samaithu Paar’.

I grew up in a close-knit 20 member joint family in Madurai, Tamilnadu, where preparing high-quality traditional savouries was a daily activity. For the women of the family, especially my mother, cooking was a great passion – and most recipes came down from grandmothers and great grandmothers and a whole lot of aunts. One of my warmest memories is of returning from school, into a house filled with fragrant vapours of hot oil, fried spices, and large bowls of delicious, crispy snacks and sweets. Festival days were filled with joy, fun, family rituals – and plenty of tasty conventional sweets and snacks!

Why choose us

Yekam meaning ‘yearning’ or ‘nostalgia’ or even ‘craving’ and also the ‘unique one’, was started after I shifted to Hyderabad. Soon we began craving for the same crunchy, mouth-watering sweets and snacks we grew up with at Madurai. And guided by my 86 year old mother, Seethalakshmi Ammal, who now lives with us, I began making them in our Ameerpet home. My mother’s 70-year long experience and expertise in preparing authentic Tamil food became my base. I procured ingredients fresh from their places of origin, mostly in Tamilnadu. Once I felt I have perfected the preparation of several of these items, I started sharing them with friends, relatives, neighbors, and office colleagues. Yekam was started because of their enthusiastic appreciation of the special taste and quality of these snacks and sweets.

Through Yekam, I now offer you in Hyderabad, the same tasty, fresh snacks, sweets, pappads. podis and pickles, the way we enjoyed them in Madurai!