For Nadia Asad (41), food has always been more than a meal. It is memory, family history, and a way of connecting cultures. Through her business, Spicy Food, chef Nadia has spent nearly a decade cooking and sharing Pakistani food in Paraguay. “I cook and I deliver. I am my own restaurant,” she says with a laugh.
Nadia is a chef, entrepreneur, and mother who has spent her life balancing two identities. Born and raised in Paraguay to Pakistani parents, she grew up between cultures, carrying traditions from both worlds into her everyday life.
Growing up between two worlds
“I am Paraguayan, my children are Paraguayan, but I am also Pakistani through my parents,” she explains. “I love the food, the films, the songs. All of that is part of who I am.”
That connection to her heritage began at home. Her parents arrived in Paraguay in 1973 after her father, a chemical engineer with an adventurous spirit, searched internationally for work opportunities. One offer brought him to a country he could barely locate on a map. Nevertheless, he moved to Itauguá with his wife and their one-month-old son, quickly learning Spanish in order to communicate with factory workers.
Although they settled thousands of miles from Pakistan, Nadia’s parents worked hard to preserve their culture. Urdu was spoken at home, and food became one of the strongest links to their roots. Nadia learned to cook from her mother, following family recipes and traditions passed down through generations.
Finding her identity
Still, growing up between two cultures was not always straightforward. “While I brought naan bread and chicken to eat with my hands, the other children brought sandwiches,” she recalls.
For years, she felt caught between identities. That changed when she travelled to Pakistan with her family at the age of 20. Spending time with relatives on both sides of the family gave her a deeper understanding of her heritage and helped her reconcile the different parts of her identity.
Her family’s culinary traditions stretch back even further. Before the partition, India and Pakistan were one country, and Nadia’s grandmother lived in the northern region. After the separation, recipes and techniques continued to be passed down through the family, including the use of ingredients such as saffron, cardamom, yoghurt, goat, and lamb.
Keeping family traditions alive
Today, those same traditions remain central to Nadia’s cooking. “One thing I do not do is fusion food, I stay faithful to the original recipes.”
Authenticity matters deeply to her. She prepares nearly everything from scratch, including her own garam masala, yoghurt, and cheese, even though ready-made versions are now widely available. “Otherwise, the flavour changes, and my mother was very strict about keeping the recipe authentic.”
Although cooking had always been part of her life, turning it into a profession took time. When she first told her father she wanted to study gastronomy, he dismissed the idea, telling her she already knew how to cook from what her mother had taught her. Instead, she began studying Psychology.
Turning passion into work
Life eventually interrupted those studies as she started her own family. Later, encouraged by her father to return to university, she finally admitted that her passion for cooking had never disappeared. This time, he supported her decision.
Nadia Asad studied at Instituto O’Hara, specialising in international cuisine, pastry, and bakery, before working in a restaurant that later closed. Rather than viewing that experience as a setback, she decided to create something of her own.
Her first business focused on sweets such as cakes, alfajores, and chocolates, but competition was fierce. The turning point came during a dinner with friends, when someone suggested she should sell the Pakistani dishes she had prepared. “The idea stayed with me.”
The birth of Spicy Food
In July 2016, she posted a list of dishes on Facebook and invited people to place orders. The response surprised her. “It was very well received. I started, and I have not stopped since.”
Among her most requested dishes today are butter chicken, chicken tikka masala, and rogan josh. One recipe she prepares with particular care is nihari, a slow-cooked stew made with 17 spices and traditionally reserved for special family occasions. She also enjoys introducing customers to desserts such as gulab jamun, which she says offers balance after richly spiced dishes.
Over the years, Nadia Asad has watched Paraguay’s food scene evolve. In the beginning, sourcing spices and ingredients was difficult, often requiring trips to Foz do Iguaçu or online orders. Today, many products are easier to find locally, reflecting a growing interest in international cuisine.
More than a business
Spicy Food now operates mainly through advance orders, allowing Nadia to balance work with raising her young children. She also provides catering, private cooking services, and classes, adapting dishes to different dietary preferences, including vegetarian options.
Despite the business’s growth, her approach remains personal and rooted in family tradition. For Nadia Asad, the most rewarding part of cooking is the connection it creates between people. “Food brings people together.”
After nearly ten years of sharing Pakistani cuisine in Paraguay, she has found that each meal can open the door to conversation, curiosity, and a deeper understanding of another culture.
Aslo read: Sabores del Pacífico: A Restaurant Where The Chef’s Cooking Is An Act of Love.
