Inside Cookbook Author Radhi Devlukia’s L.A. Kitchen: From a Cooker Mishap to Her Earthy Sanctuary

The kitchen inside cookbook author Radhi Devlukia’s Los Angeles home serves double duty as the culinary workspace where she professionally demonstrates recipes and makes nearly every private meal for her family. 

Yet, the key prep space in the 2003 post-and-beam house was temporarily knocked out of commission when the seasonal plant–based chef made a disastrous rookie mistake, Devlukia, 36, reveals to Realtor.com in the latest Celebrity Sanctuary.

“I got this beautiful cooker and oven from Europe that took, like, nine months to get to me. It's black with brass, and it's gorgeous,” says the Watford, England, native about the luxury free-standing range she had installed.

“And then by accident, I left the pot filler on and ruined it after two weeks and had to wait another nine months to actually use it,” she adds. 

Such an appliance mishap would be a major inconvenience in any working kitchen, but for a health and wellness expert like Devlukia, any disruption in her cooking space is especially challenging for her businesses.

The remodeled home kitchen is where the dietitian and nutritionist tests the recipes she shares with members of the digital cooking club she founded, the “Eat in Club,” and where she produced her New York Times bestselling cookbook, “JoyFull.” It’s also her preferred place to literally and figuratively fill her own cup in between other responsibilities, such as hosting the “A Really Good Cry” podcast and sharing co-founding duties of Juni Tea with her husband, life coach Jay Shetty.

“I personally am so big on hydration throughout the day,” she says. “It is one of my favorite moments to leave the office—my team works from home—so it's my opportunity to leave my office to get a break for a second. I take it as much as I possibly can.”

The kitchen inside cookbook author Radhi Devlukia’s Los Angeles home serves double duty as the culinary workspace where she professionally demonstrates recipes and makes nearly every private meal for her family. (Radhi Devlukia) The seasonal plant–based chef made a disastrous rookie mistake when she left the pot filler on and ruined her luxury cooking range. (Radhi Devlukia) The KitchenAid partner suggests that relying on technology to monitor the water-filling experience frees up time and headspace for an intentional self-care pause. (KitchenAid)

Though Devlukia knows the consequences of leaving water running unattended in the kitchen, she admits she’s still working on remembering to shut off the faucet whenever she’s taking a water break.

“I have a really bad habit of leaving my bottle by the tap and then letting it overflow,” shares Devlukia, who has now partnered with KitchenAid to tout its hands-free, AI, and sensor-driven water dispensing system that’s a feature of the home appliance brand’s new MindFULLness Fridge.

“The feature is incredible, [it] knows exactly when to stop, which is very useful,” states Devlukia. The KitchenAid partner also suggests that relying on technology to monitor the water-filling experience frees up time and headspace for an intentional self-care pause.

“Having that moment where you can put your bottle on ... it’s such an easy feature to be able to use and grab yourself some breaths,” insists Devlukia. “Why not give yourself that opportunity and take it as much as you possibly can?”

With so many proverbial pots on the stove at all times, Devlukia has perfected the recipe for a healthy mix of professional and personal time in her dream kitchen. In the latest edition of Celebrity Sanctuary, Devlukia offers a look inside the two-story, five-bedroom, five-bathroom home she and Shetty bought in 2021 after falling in love with L.A. and leaving the Big Apple behind.

Devlukia considers her kitchen to be her personal sanctuary inside the two-story, five-bedroom, five-bathroom home she and her husband, Jay Shetty, bought in 2021. (Radhi Devlukia) Aside from changing the floors, Devlukia says "no major renovations" were needed in the 2003 post-and-beam abode. (Radhi Devlukia) A tree that's "built into the seating area" is a unique feature in Devlukia's kitchen. (Radhi Devlukia)

We had absolutely no plans to move to L.A. The first time we came was just to visit because my husband was meeting with some people in the industry.

We thought we were going to stay in New York. We’d been there for two years and, we weren’t thinking of moving at the time. 

But then we came to L.A. and we fell in love with it. It was a crazy thing of, “Oh, my gosh. Do we need to move to L.A.? Like, is this where we're supposed to be?” Our energy felt different here. We love the lifestyle. We're both early risers and love wellness and fitness, and we thought, “This feels so much more like us.” 

I wanted to build a community, and we thought that it was going to be a lot easier doing that here. And so honestly, we went back to New York, packed up our stuff, and then moved over. 

This house, we didn't get straight away. We were renting for a little bit and then found this house after COVID.

The house was so beautiful, we didn't really have to do too much. We changed the floors, but no major renovations. It was more internal stuff like building our studios in the house and creating our little meditation area. We brought a little archway to go into it.

We spend every single morning in there. It's so beautiful. The colors are earthy tones, linens for the curtains. The room was based around nature. The walls are terra cotta. There's so much texture in there.

One of my [sanctuary] rooms is literally built to be our meditation area. The second one would definitely be my kitchen.

I have a tree that's built into the seating area in my kitchen. It's actually built into the seat, so I have a big banyan tree there. Then I have one other big tree.

Devluki added open shelving to the kitchen to display "lots of ceramics." (Radhi Devlukia) Devlukia's ceramics collection includes items she's created herself and things she's found at farmers markets around the world. (Radhi Devlukia) "There's always a big fruit bowl" on the island in her kitchen, she says. (Radhi Devlukia) She also keeps a wooden bowl for potatoes. (Radhi Devlukia)

There's shelves with lots of ceramics, stuff that I've done in pottery, things that I've bought in farmers markets around the world. I love bringing back ceramics from places. There's colorful blues and earthy tones. Mugs, plates, big plates. I could honestly have a little rental company for ceramics because I have so many. 

I actually redid the kitchen, so I got lots of shelving put on for that reason, to be able to keep lots of ceramics out that you can see. 

I have huge ceramics filled with vegetables and fruits that you can keep out, so there's always a big fruit bowl. I have wooden bowls with my potatoes and stuff on another area. One's [designed by] Kelly Wearstler. 

I have a whole area of appliances, one area that I keep all my kitchen appliances. I have an island in the middle. 

Everything is labeled in my kitchen. Every drawer is labeled, and a pantry where all my stuff is in jars—all my flours, all my lentils, all my beans—everything's in jars and labeled. I love organization in the kitchen.

My grandma passed away last year, and I have this really beautiful—it's a shopping list that she wrote. Her first language isn’t English, and so when she was adding to the shopping list, she wrote—I actually have a tattoo of it—she wrote grape as "GREP," strawberry as "STOBERI," and something else. She misspelled everything, and so I have the shopping list. My friend got it written onto a linen and framed for me, and so I have that next to all my ceramics framed and it's so cute. It makes me laugh every time I look at it.

And then [there's] a picture of me, my mom, and my dad in the kitchen, so I have a lot of little family things in there. 

Devlukia's kitchen aesthetic is dominated by earth tones. (Radhi Devlukia) Devlukia has a designated area for kitchen appliances. (Radhi Devlukia) One of the sentimental items Devlukia incorporated into her kitchen decor is a framed linen depicting a shopping list that was handwritten by her late grandmother. (Radhi Devlukia ) Devlukia admits she loves "organization in the kitchen." (Radhi Devlukia) In Devlukia's kitchen pantry and drawers, "everything is labeled." (Radhi Devlukia)

I spend every single day in there. We barely eat out. I cook every meal that we eat: breakfast, lunch, dinner.

I find cooking so soothing. I cannot wait after I finish work to just go in the kitchen, see what's in the fridge. It is a meditation for me when I'm cooking. I really think about how I cook consciously, and the mood and the environment that I create in the kitchen. Feeding people is such a beautiful exchange of energy, so definitely a kitchen can be such a great sanctuary.

When I'm cooking meals for us, I don't film or record it. I really see it as I'm putting energy into this food to nourish us, and then I have filming days where it's just doing the content that I'm creating.

Before, I didn't used to separate it and it would create so much stress around me all the time. I used to try to film everything that I was cooking, and it felt counterintuitive to why I was cooking. And so I've separated the days now where I'll have filming days and then I'll have my meal times as me just cooking for fun and experimenting. Food is my love language, for sure.