Hey y'all!
I'm Rachel Musquiz, Ayurvedic chef, herbalist, and founder of Curcuma Kitchen. Using the approach that food is medicine, I create products that make it easy to incorporate delicious & healing food in your kitchen everyday.
I spent a decade chasing my dreams in New York City & Los Angeles, working with Conde Nast, L'Oreal, and NBCUniversal and earning my MA in Media Studies at The New School University. As exciting as it was to work with the top magazines & brands in the world, I felt extremely drained & burned out. Most of my meals came involved packaged food from the bodega or takeout. I didn't feel at home in my own body.
After a visit home to Northern California, I realized just how disconnected from my food I was. I picked up The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters and began a curious journey of connecting to my food. I joined a local CSA and would haul a random assortment of veggies up my 4th floor walkup and invite friends over for dinner. That's when I found my love for nourishing others. I burned out on my career, and left New York knowing that I wanted food to be a focal point in my future.
For the next year, I lived in intentional communities & traveled, learning culinary traditions from everywhere I visited primarily Italy, but also Spain, Mexico, Cambodia, and Thailand. My introduction to the ancient healing traditions of Ayurveda began on my yoga mat, and inspired me to incorporate the concept of food as medicine into my kitchen, both personally and professionally.
By changing what I put into my body, I was able to heal myself of chronic inflammation, hormone imbalance & adrenal fatigue. My mental health also stabilized, and I felt such freedom with a plant-based Ayurvedic lifestyle.
When I moved to Austin in 2016, I opened a food truck and named it Curcuma, after the botanical name for turmeric (an herb that truly changed my life). I served up Austin's FIRST Golden Mylk - a turmeric latte with my own signature blend of turmeric & spices. I created a menu that brought flavor & function together, incorporating Ayurvedic tradition and sourcing from the highest quality local & organic options available. Curcuma got some major nods including Bon Appetit, Esquire, Austin Chronicle's Top 100 Restaurants, and many more.
After 4.5 years of serving the community with plant-based meals & superfood lattes, I closed the windows to the food truck. We now offer:
- Ayurvedic inspired products that allow people to make delicious healing recipes at home.
- Golden Turmeric to Austin's best coffee spots! You can find Curcuma Golden Mylk at 30+ cafes in Austins
- Seasonal Kitchari Cleanse programs to help you kickstart your Ayurvedic lifestyle
I'm currently on a bit of a sabbatical, spending my time living in a van & cooking up nourishing meals in the backcountry. I'll be back in Austin this fall with some exciting updates on the future of Curcuma Kitchen! Stay tuned for updates by following on Instagram or signing up for our newsletter.