Shara Tochia
A London Irish Story as told to Matthew Dunne-Miles
“I was frustrated by the health and fitness industry being around working out to get abs and lose weight in six days. There was no one speaking to me, who loved to work out for fun because it makes me feel amazing, but who also loved to drink red wine and eat pizza.”
I’m originally from a lovely place called Gants Hill, Ilford – which is Northeast London to some, or Essex to most. Depending on where I am, I try to say one or the other. I now live in Highgate, North London, but I spent a good part of 18 years there.
You can buy the cheapest and best bagels ever from the Jewish bakery, Shalom, on the roundabout in Gants Hill and I can get my eyebrows threaded for three pounds. It's also still home. My parents still live there, so I love visiting for their cooking. It seems that all the areas towards London and further out have all gotten nice and become a bit more boujie – but not Ilford or Gants Hill.
“My Dad is Indian and grew up in Narobi Kenya. He moved here when he was 19.
He gate-crashed an Irish nursing disco, where they met, and they're still together to this day.”
My Mum grew up in a tiny town called Moycarkey in the Tipperary countryside and my Grandmother now lives in Thurles. My Mum is one of seven, the only girl, with six brothers now all over the world. They live in Canada, France, and previously in Asia. They’re all internationally spread. She’s a nurse, and like many Irish ex-pats at that time, was flying to London to work at Whipps Cross Hospital in Leytonstone.
When they were first dating, he tried to take her to nice restaurants, but my Mum was a difficult person to take out for dinner because she was so inexperienced with food. She didn't like cheese on a pizza, and she had a breakdown seeing snails. She used to sneak him into the hospital where she was boarding, and she had so little money that she used to wring out tea bags on a clothing line.
“People will sometimes say ‘Oh my God, it’s such an unusual mix’ – it’s not.
Irish and Indian families are both centred around food and lots of people at all times.”
Having twenty people in my house on a Sunday was quite normal, as well as waking up and being shifted out to a cousin's house, within half an hour drive, to hang out there and eat all day.
They both had a lot of problems with each other's families because my Father's family are Hindu and my Mother's are Catholic. Both sides said, “Whoa. This is new. This is different”. We’re the only mixed-race family on both sides.
“My sisters and I would visit Ireland for six weeks every summer holiday. We would go to the farm where my Grandmother lived – where my Mum grew up – and wake up the hens and name all the stray cats.
I used to love going to church because the sweet shop was next door.”
I'm personally an active person. My career has been around marketing and PR, but I've also taught spinning part-time as a hobby before work. I was frustrated by the health and fitness industry being around working out to get abs and lose weight in six days. There was no one speaking to me, who loved to work out for fun because it makes me feel amazing, but who also loved to drink red wine and eat pizza. I met my now business partner, Hettie Holmes, who comes from a similar background, and we were both just annoyed. Four years ago, we launched DOSE as a platform where you could find all the best healthier versions of things to make you feel good. DOSE is an acronym for your happy hormones, Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin & Endorphins.
Being from a mixed family has had a big influence on me. My Irish family have a work ethic as I've never seen before, and I find that in a lot of Irish families from similar backgrounds. I have that in me. When it comes to food, that’s more from the Indian side – although, my Mum is now a phenomenal cook and learned to cook lots of Indian food for my Dad. There's a big foodie culture in my family and I take it with me, wherever I am in the world.
I'm also conscious of making sure I have a work team that is representing all different backgrounds. That was made more apparent last year, I think you weren't a human being unless you had a look around, at where you worked and your social circles when George Floyd died.
To find out more about DOSE, visit www.whateveryourdose.com
