Bridget White-Kumar was born and brought up in Kolar Gold Fields, a small mining town in the erstwhile Mysore State now known as Karnataka, India. K G F had a very sizable Anglo-Indian Population who lived and worked there for generations. It was well known for its colonial ambience with elegant bungalows replete with huge lawns and gardens and many clubs with tennis and badminton courts, golf courses etc. This place, which was known as “Little England”

was unique for its secular and egalitarian society not found anywhere else in the world.

Bridget studied in St Joseph's Convent School, Champion Reefs, K G F and completed her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics and Sociology at the First Grade College, Oorgaum, K G F. She then completed her Bachelor of Education Degree at the Vijaya Teachers' College, Bangalore obtaining the 6th Rank in Bangalore University in 1975. She worked as a teacher in the Cambridge School, Bangalore, for about a year then joined the Canara Bank in 1977. She served in Canara Bank for 23 years then took voluntary retirement in 1999.

Bridget has always been fond of cooking and trying out all the old forgotten recipes of the community. Her mother the late Doris White was an exceptional cook and had a vast collection of recipes which were all handwritten in old and torn note books and pieces of paper. What started out as a hobby and past time, slowly became a passion. Through trial and error she arrived at the exact amounts of ingredients etc. to be used, besides substituting some of the ingredients to suit present day availability and health consciousness.

In a world fast turning into a Global Village, with many Anglo-Indians migrating away from India and marriages outside the Community becoming common, she felt that it had therefore become imperative to preserve and record for future generations the unique culture and cuisine of the pioneers of the community.

Hence, in order to ensure that the Anglo-Indian Community lives on through its culinary delights, Bridget has brought out three Cookery Books on Anglo-Indian Cuisine with the hope that these books would be a useful, if unpretentious guide to Anglo-Indian Cooking.

1. THE BEST OF ANGLO-INDIAN CUISINE – A LEGACY in Nov 2004
2. A COLLECTION OF ANGLO-INDIAN ROASTS CASSEROLES AND BAKES in July 2005 and
3. FLAVOURS OF THE PAST (Colonial Cuisine at its very best) in June 2006
   

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