Memories
As a child I spent endless hours in the kitchen, amidst an astonishing array of aromas, watching my mother perform a natural alchemy – transforming ordinary elements into meals both subtle and bold, polished yet comforting. To my eyes it was nothing short of magic conjured by knife and spatula and tongs; and catalyzed by the essential “masala dubba”.
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Driven to recreate this energy, this transformational magic, I decided to work in professional kitchens. Despite the haute cuisine and the finest ingredients, I could never recreate the energy that suffused my mother’s kitchen, nor the sheer joy I felt. Cooking, and more importantly, feeding people, was too personal an act to be industrialized. Pouring a part of your soul into your food was an integral part of the alchemy.
...magic conjured by knife and spatula and tongs...
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...the energy that suffused my mother’s kitchen...
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This dinner club is my way of sharing, beyond the kitchen table, the recipes that have shaped my life.
To show that Indian food is sooo much more - the sweet-tinged balance of Gujarati cuisine from my home state, the coconut curry leaf and pepper infused cooking of Kerala, the subtly spiced Bengali food laced with mustard oil.
This is a tribute to the matriarchs that taught me to cook – my grandmother, who is precise and consistent, and my mother, an agent of culinary chaos. It is a homage to the place where I learned to cook –
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