By Sindhu | S3M Studio
If you’ve ever tried food art for picky eaters, you know the magic that happens when a plate becomes a canvas.
Every blog has a name. But not every blog name has a story that makes you tear up a little when you tell it. S3M Studio does. It began with food art for a picky eater — and it changed everything.
S3M — three S’s and an M.
S3 — Sindhu, Samirah and Savannah. A mum and her two girls. Three S’s who somehow end up in the kitchen together more often than anywhere else. M — Mahesh. My husband, who contributes to S3M Studio by enthusiastically being the official taste tester – eating everything I make and asking “is there more?”
Four people. One family. One little corner of the internet built around everything we love, everything we’ve learned, and everything that makes our everyday life a little more creative, a little more intentional, and a whole lot more fun.
This is our story.
It Started Long Before I Had a Name For It
If you’re new here, let me take you back.
I’m Sindhu — originally from Kochi, Kerala, in South India, where the Arabian Sea was practically our backyard and my mother’s kitchen was the centre of the universe. I grew up watching her cook with an ease and confidence that made even the most complex Kerala dishes look effortless. Whatever love I have for food, whatever instinct I have in the kitchen — it came from her.
I made the move to Beaverton, Oregon in 2009 — just me, a suitcase, and a head full of Kerala recipes. Mahesh joined me in Seattle, Washington in 2011, and this city has been home ever since. We brought Kerala with us in the only ways that really matter: the food, the warmth, the festivals, and the belief that a shared meal is the best thing you can give someone.
I started blogging way back in 2010 — just a small space called Sindhu’s World where I documented recipes, food photography, crafts, and travel. Nothing fancy. Just a Kerala girl in the Pacific Northwest, cooking, creating, and finding her voice.
Food Art for Picky Eaters — How It All Started
And then Samirah arrived.
My firstborn was, from a very early age, a girl who knew exactly what she wanted — and vegetables were firmly not on that list. She refused almost all of them. With a determination that was honestly impressive, she would push aside anything green, anything unfamiliar, anything that wasn’t on her very short list of approved foods.
As her mother, I tried everything. I cajoled. I negotiated. I hid things in sauces. Nothing worked.
And then one morning in 2015, something clicked.
I had idli batter ready — a staple Kerala breakfast, soft steamed rice cakes that should have been completely uncontroversial. Samirah, predictably, had already decided breakfast was not happening.
Instead of serving it the usual way, I slowed down. I arranged the soft white rounds carefully on her plate. I shaped the larger idli into a mum — with coconut chutney for hair, green peas for earrings, and tiny details made from whatever I had in the fridge. Next to her, a smaller idli became a little girl, leaning in close, the same curly chutney hair, the same bright expression.
A mum. And her daughter. Side by side on a plate.
I set it down in front of her and held my breath.
She looked at it. Really looked at it. And then her face broke into the biggest smile I had ever seen.
“Amma, that’s us!”
She ate every single bite. Every last one.
The very first food art I ever made — idli arranged as a mom and daughter. Kerala breakfast, Seattle kitchen, 2015. This is where S3M Studio began.
The Plate Became Our Canvas
That one idli breakfast changed everything in our home.
That one idli breakfast changed everything in our home. What started as a desperate mum’s creative solution became our daily ritual — and one of the most joyful chapters of my life.
From 2015 all the way through to 2019, I made food art almost every single day. The plate became our canvas. Ordinary, everyday ingredients became the art. Broccoli florets turned into tiny trees. A banana curved into a crescent moon. Cucumber slices became fish scales. Cherry tomatoes transformed into ladybugs. Chapathi became the earth on Earth Day. Fruits became a Women’s Day bouquet.
Mahesh’s reaction when he first saw what I was doing? He was amazed and immediately encouraging. He just looked at Samirah’s plate, looked at me, and said “This is incredible — keep going.” So I kept going.
The proudest moment of those years came quietly, without fanfare. One day, Samirah ate a vegetable she had always, always refused. I had tucked it into a flower made from rice. She ate every petal. She didn’t even notice until she was done — and then she just shrugged and asked for more. That shrug was my standing ovation.
Samirah Became My Sous Chef
Somewhere along the way, Samirah stopped being just the audience. She climbed up next to me at the counter and became my little sous chef. Small hands carefully arranging strawberries, choosing colors, deciding exactly where the pomegranate seeds should go. She had an extraordinary eye for color and placement — even at five years old. The food art was no longer just mine. It was ours.
The Plate Became a Bridge to India
Something else was happening quietly alongside the picky eating journey — something I hadn’t planned but that became equally precious to me.
We live in Seattle. My girls were born here. They’ve grown up with Pacific Northwest winters, American schools, and English as their first language. India — Kerala — is something they know through us. Through stories. Through phone calls with grandparents. Through the smell of coconut oil in the kitchen.
And through food art.
Every Indian festival became an opportunity. Not just to celebrate, but to show. To explain. To make real.
For Onam — Kerala’s harvest festival — I recreated King Mahabali on a banana leaf, with a woman in a traditional kasavu saree made from rice, and a pookalam flower made from blueberries and corn. For Navratri, two dancers twirled in strawberry lehengas with pomegranate embroidery. For Republic Day, I made the map of India in the colours of the tricolour — saffron, white and green — with four figures standing together representing India’s unity and diversity. For Diwali, for Vishu, for Christmas, for every celebration — the plate became the classroom.
Samirah learned about festivals she had never seen in person through these plates. She learned what a kasavu saree looks like, who King Mahabali is, what the Ashoka Chakra means. She and Savannah love getting dressed in traditional Indian attire for photos — just for photos, mind you, not to wear all day 😄 — but the joy on their faces when they do is everything.
Honestly? The festival food art is as much for me as it is for them.
It keeps me connected to Kerala even from Seattle. Every Onam plate is a little act of love for the home I carry inside me. Every festival I recreate on a plate is my way of saying — we are still here, we still remember, we still belong.
Life Does What Life Does
By 2019, things shifted — as life has a way of doing. Samirah started school full time. Work got busier — I lead global technology teams across the US, Canada and India, and the demands of that role are real. And then 2020 arrived with everything it brought — the world stopped, routines disappeared, and like so many families, we found ourselves just trying to stay steady.
And then in 2021, our little Savannah was born.
A tiny, joyful whirlwind who turned our world upside down in the most beautiful way possible. Suddenly there were two girls, two schedules, two completely different personalities to navigate — and the creative energy that used to go into daily food art quietly shifted into something even more demanding and rewarding: keeping two humans alive and thriving 😄
The food art slowed. The blog went quiet. But the love for it? That never went anywhere. It just waited.
The Adventure Begins Again — With a Twist
Savannah is four now. And she is everything Samirah was not, food-wise. She will eat practically anything you put in front of her — with enormous enthusiasm and zero drama. We don’t fully understand it. We are deeply grateful.
But she has inherited something precious from her big sister and from me: she loves to be in the kitchen. She loves to watch, to help, to create. Lately she’s been climbing up next to me at the counter with those same small hands — ready to arrange, to place, to make something beautiful out of something ordinary.
The festival food art is waiting for her too. She hasn’t yet sat with me through a full Onam plate or a Navratri dancer — but that’s coming. And I cannot wait for the moment she looks at a plate and understands, really understands, what she’s looking at and where it comes from.
Samirah is 12 now — opinionated, creative, and yes, still a little selective about her vegetables 😄. She doesn’t make food art with me every day anymore, but every now and then she’ll wander into the kitchen, look at what I’m doing, and pick up a strawberry to place just so. Some things stay with you.
So, What is S3M Studio?
A Decade in the Making
S3M Studio is named after the three S’s and an M who make every single day worth showing up for — Sindhu, Samirah, Savannah, and Mahesh. My family – My reason for everything.
But it is also something bigger than a family blog.
It’s a decade of cooking, creating, and keeping culture alive — from a small kitchen in Kerala to a WordPress blog in 2010, to food art that somehow ended up on Bored Panda, to festival plates that teach my Seattle-born girls about the country their mother calls home. It’s a Kerala girl raising two girls between two worlds, blending South Indian traditions with Pacific Northwest life, and finding the joy — and the meaning — in the overlap.
By day I lead global technology teams across the US, Canada and India. By evening I’m in the kitchen turning idli into art and chapathi into the map of a country I want my daughters to love as much as I do. Somehow both feel equally creative. Equally important.
At S3M Studio you’ll find:
🎨 Food Art — creative meals for picky eaters and beautiful plates for every Indian festival
🧪 STEM & Kids Activities — for curious little minds like Savannah’s
🌱 Recipes & Gardening — real food for real family life, Kerala and beyond
💡 Smart Living — AI tools, Tech Blogs, productivity tips, and ideas for busy working parents
Whether you’ve tried food art for picky eaters or are just starting out, whether you’re an Indian family abroad trying to keep your culture alive for your children, or simply someone who wants to make ordinary moments feel a little more special — you’re in exactly the right place.
Mahesh is still the world’s most enthusiastic taste tester — enthusiastically eating everything I make and always asking if there’s more. Samirah is still a little selective about her vegetables. Savannah eats everything and asks for seconds. And I’m still standing in the kitchen, turning a plain plate into something that makes a little girl say “Amma, that’s us!”
Welcome to S3M Studio. We are so glad you’re here. ✨
If this story resonated with you — if you’re a parent of a picky eater, an Indian family keeping culture alive far from home, or simply someone who believes that a meal can be so much more than food — save this post and come back soon. There is so much more to share.
— Sindhu