Profile

Christina Arokiasamy (Aro Keeya Samee), born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is renowned for sharing diversity in cuisine in the United States with her unique culinary skills, as a spice expert and as an award-winning cookbook author. She was… Christina Arokiasamy (Aro Keeya Samee), born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is renowned for sharing diversity in cuisine in the United States with her unique culinary skills, as a spice expert and as an award-winning cookbook author. She was Malaysia's first-ever official Food Ambassador to the United States and brings with her over 25 years of world class culinary expertise as a former chef of various Four Seasons Resorts throughout Southeast Asia.
As a schoolgirl in Kuala Lumpur, Christina could always smell her house before she could see it. She was known as the girl with yellow hands at school because she helped her mother prepare ground turmeric at the nearby mill. Her mother handed down the spice knowledge making Christina Arokiasamy the 5th generation descendant of spice merchants. Her great-great grandfather traded spices since the supremacy of the British East India Company. Cooking like the spice business, was a daily way of life for Christina and her family.
In and after 2015 in collaboration with The Cooking Channel, Chef Christina Arokiasamy hosted The Malaysian Kitchen, the program reaching over 80 million viewers nationwide USA; to showcase the exotic blend of flavors born of the spice trade and rich in tradition. Her efforts help place Malaysian cuisine as the top 3 flavor trends in America by The National Restaurant Association.
Her expert knowledge in spices appeared in Oprah.com, Huffington Post, CBS, NBC News, Fox News, The New York Times, The Food Network Magazine, WebMD, The Milk Street Magazine, Yahoo News and other International media.
Her love for this cuisine inspired her to write The Malaysian Kitchen: 150 Recipes for Simple Home Cooking published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt New York 2017. Her second cookbook was featured in People Magazine, The Advocate, The Seattle Times, The Publisher's Weekly, making headlines on seven Canadian Newspapers: The National Post, Vancouver Sun, Calgary Herald, The Montreal Gazette, Ottawa Citizen, and other international media. The Malaysian Kitchen was awarded one of the Top 10 Cookbooks of 2017 on Amazon.
Her first cookbook The Spice Merchant's Daughter published by Clarkson Potter New York, was listed as top ten cookbooks in the USA by NPR in 2008. Her cookbook earned a starred review on Publisher's Weekly, and was featured on the Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, and The Boston Globe.
Christina passion is sharing and teaching the use of spices to create a fusion of deeply layered global flavors that are both delicious and healthy. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family and is currently the chef ambassador for GAGGENAU, BSH Home Appliances Corporation.
Christina's joy is to give Americans an insider experience into her tropical homeland through cooking classes, chef demonstrations, talks and culinary tours to Southeast Asia.