One of India's biggest food creators is trading her home studio for a Maldivian island kitchen. Kabita Singh, the face behind Kabita's Kitchen, will host a live cooking residency at Sun Siyam Olhuveli on 20 October 2026 to mark International Chefs' Day.
If the name rings a bell, it should: Kabita's Kitchen has around 14.6 million YouTube subscribers and grew from a simple home-cooking channel into one of India's most-followed food platforms, covering regional dishes, vegetarian staples, street food classics and everyday family recipes. In 2024 she took home Best Creator in Food Category at the inaugural National Creators Award, presented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
For the residency, Singh will cook alongside the resort's culinary team in front of guests, presenting a menu of vegetarian, vegan and health-conscious dishes developed with the kitchen team. Expect her signature style — familiar Indian flavours, accessible recipes, increasingly wholesome cooking — filtered through the resort's Plant Based Bliss programme, which champions plant-forward dining. Guests can watch her work, hear the stories behind the dishes, and taste the results on the spot.
Sun Siyam Olhuveli's general manager Hassan Adil framed it as a social, participatory kind of dining rather than a passive celebrity appearance — watching, learning and eating together as the point of the event. The resort sits in South Malé Atoll and is part of Sun Siyam's Lifestyle Collection, pairing beach life with dining, wellness and entertainment.
It's part of a broader run of guest-chef energy across Maldivian resorts. Patina Maldives, Fari Islands is staging the latest chapter of its Perpetual Journey programme through November, with a Patina Art Residency for London artist Shezad Dawood, a FC Bayern Munich youth football camp, a Yardbird Hong Kong izakaya pop-up week, and a three-day Diwali celebration with chef Atul Kochhar. Kuredhivaru Resort and Spa, meanwhile, has a September-to-October line-up spanning a Japanese-Peruvian six-course dinner with bartender Norihiko Furuse, an Oktoberfest with pork knuckle and pretzels, and family Halloween festivities from 30 to 31 October.
Why it matters: live chef residencies turn a beach holiday into something more memorable — you leave with techniques and stories, not just a tan. For fans of Indian home cooking, seeing a creator with an audience the size of a mid-size country cook in person is a genuinely rare booking. If you're eyeing the Maldives for October 2026, this is a date worth building a trip around.
