indian vegetarian homecooked meals sought - los angeles area

greetings to all who may come across this post; we're so glad you did!

while i was in college, i had the amazing opportunity to live and to learn in old delhi for one year. i was an exchange student through the university of california education abroad program (in my case, i attended delhi school of economics, lived in mukherjee nagar, and traveled as often as i could). as an american with a lifelong love and respect for indian culture, this was a dream come true for me. and i LOVED my time in india.

as you can imagine, i was spoiled rotten by the availability of delicious indian cuisines of all types, from street vendors to family cooked meals to the occasional upscale gourmet fare, north to south indian, gujarati, rajasthani, bengali, so many varieties of wonderful foods. back in california, now, where there are many fine indian restaurants, i still find myself missing having the great good fortune to eat a healthy mix of veggies and delectables prepared indian-style every-single-day. maybe aside from some visits to little india in artesia, i cannot seem to find less-usual dishes in indian restaurants in america, and my tastebuds are suffering for it. ;>)

here's the crux of things...

my partner and i now live in the los angeles area, glendale to be exact, and we're hoping to find an inspired and experienced indian cook who would enjoy cooking a little extra vegetarian food -- beyond the amount you may already cook your own family -- for some very grateful california kids who would happily pay for the privilege to enjoy your culinary creations.

we're very open to different scenarios, depending on what might work out best; we're just trying to figure out a way to be able to regularly eat homecooked vegetarian indian meals, without having to prepare and cook them ourselves, or buy them from restaurants. other details are up for discussion.

so, given the above scenario, we're hoping to get a bit of specific help from forum members, if possible:

1- as a starting place, we are hoping to receive enough prepared food to feed two people for lunch and dinner, three to four days per week. occasional desserts would be welcome, too. would it be easiest to request a number of prepared dishes? how might this arrangement be best set up for simplicity's sake?

2- we could pick up the meals ourselves (once or twice a week?), or, alternatively, we'd be happy to pay extra if the meals could be dropped off at our home. what might be a fair way to handle delivery?

3- what do you think would be a fair price to offer for such a service, considering the cost of groceries, the time and energy it takes to shop for them, food prep, and the trouble of cooking extra for two more adults?

4- i was raised vegetarian, also eating dairy and eggs, and my partner is also vegetarian. so, dairy is fine with us, eggs may be omitted or not, onions and garlic are fine with us, and we're quite adventurous and non-picky palate-wise, so i imagine this could be a fun endeavor for the right person (we hope!). any ideas on how to find interested casual cooks? flyers at markets? postings on this forum or others?

5- for health reasons, if we prefer stainless steel cookware or cast iron to aluminum or non-stick coated cookware, would it seem intrusive to request this and/or provide the cookware? how might we bring this up in a sensitive manner?

6- any other thoughts or ideas you might have to share with us?

thanks very much for taking the time to read our posting. this is our first one, and we've probably not thought of all the details yet, but any help you may have to offer would be greatly appreciated. and please feel free to forward our post on to anyone you think may be interested! :thumbsup

namaste!
<3 <3 <3