Vidya Balachander

Hi! I am Vidya, a food and travel journalist and editor. My special interests are food, culture and travel — and how the three intersect. I was the Features Editor of BBC Good Food's India edition, before moving to Colombo in July 2014. In the last five years, my writing has appeared in a number of international outlets, including Saveur.com, CNN's Parts Unknown, Roads & Kingdoms, The Juggernaut and National Public Radio's The Salt, among others.

In addition, I am also a seasoned editor. Most recently, I served as the Editor-in-chief of Roar Media, a Sri Lankan digital media house. In that role, I helped shape and formalise the editorial policy of Roar Media, oversaw the expansion of the editorial teams and sharpened the company's focus on journalism. For editorial and content consultations, click here.

My other interests include academic research with an anthropology focus. In December 2018, I presented a paper on the Ammachi canteens in Sri Lanka at City Food Labs, a symposium organised by New York University's food studies department. You can watch a brief video interview about the subject matter of my research here. In July 2019, I was selected to present a paper on the Ammachi canteens at the Oxford Food Symposium, held at St Catherine's College, Oxford. You can find more information about the Symposium here.