Ode to some cookbook writers.

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

Such profound consolation when a fellow Delhi wala brings fresh international prestige to our smoggy unliveable city. Delhi-born gourmand Madhur Jaffrey’s book on Dilli ka khana has been distinguished this week by New York Times as among “the 25 most influential cookbooks from the last 100 years.” The list includes classics such as Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and Claudia Roden’s A Book of Middle Eastern Food.

Published in 1973, An Invitation to Indian Cooking was subtitled as “Mostly the subtle, spicy cooking of Delhi.” The introduction claimed to give “Indian recipes completely adapted to the American kitchen.” Maybe that’s why the book is unintentionally funny in those parts where the earnest Manhattan-based author—who grew up in apna Civil Lines—tried to acclimatise the foreigners to our desi rasoi, using long-winded prose to explain the stuff we take for granted. So, the chimta consists of “flat, smooth-edged long tongs,” and the karahi is “curved at the bottom and very wide at the top, like a half-moon.” The glossary describing a typical Delhi cook’s daily lingo is more amusing: “Dey Dal May Pani” (“put water in the dal”), “Quon Bhai Chai Hojai” (“Well now brother, how about tea?”) and “Sharabi Kababi” (“one who likes to eat and drink”).

Who talks like that? (Maybe the book’s American fans!)

While celebrating Madhur Jaffrey, it is necessary to invoke another Delhi author. Her book preceded Madhur Jaffrey’s in introducing our khana to the world. It in fact happens to be among Madhur Jaffery favourite cookbooks. Some believe it to have been the source of chicken tikka masala.

Mrs Balbir Singh’s Indian Cookery appeared in the US in 1961. The cover called it an “exciting and comprehensive treasury of recipes from India, including curries, kebabs, rice dishes, breads… pickles, chutneys, and other preserves.” A Punjab University graudate, the late Mrs Balbir Singh and her husband spent their early years as a couple in London, where she first started to teach Indian cooking. On settling in Delhi, she continued giving cooking classes, often at her Vasant Vihar home.

Sadly, the pioneering book is difficult to find, though Delhi’s Variety Book Depot did issue a reprint, according to Nita Puri of Central News Agency, who recalls attending Mrs Balbir Singh’s cooking classes. (The Delhi Walla fished out a first edition at the Sunday Book Bazar.)

Years later in 2017, another Delhi wala authored a cookbook on Delhi food. For a change, late Sadia Dehlvi’s Jasmine and Jinns: Memories and Recipes of My Delhi was written not for firangs, but for us Delhiwale.

PS: Photo shows Sadia Dehlvi in her kitchen, snapped around the time she published her book.