During her long recovery from a traumatic brain injury, one of the exercises that helped Nirali Chauhan was pretending to bake.
Chauhan was injured 8½ years ago during a visit home to Barrington from college. Her family was getting together to remember her father on the anniversary of his unexpected death. That day, the batteries on one of the family vehicles had died, so a neighbor was asked to come over and give the car a jump.
"Over time my movements were less coordinated. I would feel sick and have headaches and pain all over my body," Chauhan said."I was acing all my classes and looked the same on the outside, so it was hard to convince people that something was wrong." Baking became a hobby, creative outlet and kind of meditation over the years, but Chauhan found herself limited in the kitchen.
When an old Barrington High School friend tagged her in an Instagram post last year seeking applicants for the next season of the American spinoff of"The Great British Baking Show," she decided to give it a try.