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”.
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...
...the energy that suffused my mother’s kitchen...
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 –
