INDIANAPOLIS — It's the universal language.
"Good, delicious food will make you change your mind," chef Juszina Maria said. "Any problems you're going through, you taste some good, down home cooking, it'll just take you to another dimension."
A year ago, in the midst of the pandemic, she caught her break during one of the toughest times of her life.
"I was out of work because I couldn't come in contact with anyone," Maria said. "It's a lot of people that went through things just like me. I was on unemployment, I was waiting on everything to come through. It was just crazy. I had a lot of things thrown at me, so I said, 'why not?' When life throws you lemons, what do you do? You make lemonade. I said, 'why not do what I love doing?' And that's cooking."
Earlier this year her cookbook, FAVA, was published and released.
"Instead of F-A-V-O-R, I put F-A-V-A which is God's favor over my life," she said. "I was just hoping that this book could help someone even in the midst of no matter what they’re going through."
The early response has been great.
"The first couple of weeks I was the No. 1 newest release on Amazon," Maria said.
Not only does FAVA provide recipes, but motivational and even biblical quotes.
"Not only is it just a cookbook, it has meaning to it," Maria said. "It was made during the pandemic when everyone was closed in and we were freaking out. We didn't know what was going to happen from today to tomorrow. When you put God first, you can't help but go nowhere but up."
Of course, this cookbook has plenty of chef Juszina Maria's own flavor.
"It's called 'marry me chicken and dressing' and I came up with names like that because when you taste it, you're like 'oh my God, can you marry me? Would you marry me?'"
One day, Maria hopes cooking becomes her full-time job.
"This is what I was born to do," Maria said.