The great chef’s life in Delhi. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Once upon a time there lived a woman. Kind, amiable and generous. She was much loved by her large circle of friends and by her family. Prakash Kapur had also cultivated a happy relationship with her kitchen. Her chhole, for instance, were considered legendary by all those lucky enough to be invited to her table. And then she fell gravely ill. On the morning of January 1, 2004, a few days after returning from the hospital for the last time, she asked her daughter-in-law to make a dish that she used to rustle out on happy occasions. Since she was too weak to walk all the way to the kitchen,

The great chef’s life in Delhi. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Old-time family cooks don’t fuss about their employer’s guests — The Delhi Walla's experience. They are so prized by the family, so entwined into its affairs, that they know very well that friends would sooner stop receiving invitations to the house than they getting sacked. Therefore, they have no urge to show any special attention to outsiders. M Meena is also greatly valued by her employers but she is always so excessively considerate towards me, a lunchtime guest. It’s as if her life depends on my satisfaction. The elderly woman has been working as a cook in this south Delhi household for 40 years. Everybody calls her Amma, or mother. Her

The great chef’s life in Delhi. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Everything was almost lost trying to pay for Papa’s medical bills when he fell ill. The land had to be pawned. Sangeeta, the third of four sisters, then left Turbul, her village near Ranchi in Jharkhand, and came to Delhi where she built a career as a cook in affluent households. She went on to earn enough money to get back the family’s land. “There was a time when we would go to other houses in the village for a bowl of rice but now other people of the village come to ask us for rice,” she says. The Delhi Walla is hanging out with Sangeeta in a tony apartment in

The great chef’s life in Delhi. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] They say that Karachi, the capital of Pakistan's Sindh province, is full of Delhiwalas who moved there after Partition. In fact, Karachi even has a neighbourhood called Delhi Mercantile Society. One of our city’s greatest novelists, Ahmad Ali, spent his last years in Karachi. But here's something about Sindhi Hindus who moved to Delhi after Partition. “There are a lot of us who settled in Mayfair Gardens, Lajpat Nagar and Old Rajinder Nagar,” says Kamala Hemrajani — called Kamlu by family and friends — who lives in a lovely apartment in Defence Colony. Ms Hemrajani’s husband retired from a long career in the corporate world. Her two sons recently finished business

The great chef’s life in Delhi. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] She was born in Srinagar. Both her parents were also born in Jammu and Kashmir’s capital. And this was her husband’s birthplace too. But her daughter was born in the city of Jammu, six hours away. She was pregnant when she left the Valley in February 1990, due to what she calls ‘disturbances’. Shirali Raina is a Kashmiri. The Delhi Walla is at her third-floor apartment in Sector 61, Noida. The apartment complex, with scores of flats, is also home to about a dozen Kashmiri families. A clinical research specialist, Ms Raina largely grew up in Baramulla, where her father taught English literature in a college. She has sweet memories of

The great chef’s life in Delhi. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Nobody dares to offers khichri to guests. This rice-and-dal combination is best eaten in complete privacy, as comfort food, or when one is suffering from an upset stomach. But Pushpesh Pant is making this dish in The Delhi Walla's honour this afternoon. I'm at his home in Gurgaon. The author of not less than 20 food books, including the voluminous classic India: The Cookbook, Mr Pant is bent upon turning this Plain Jane into the princess she deserves to be — his words! Between sips of red wine, he holds forth on khichri’s greatness, declaring it to be India’s true national dish. His informed reasoning swings from stories from the Vedas

The great chef’s life in Delhi. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Author Rakhshanda Jalil is famous for translating classic Urdu novels into English and for her writings on Delhi’s monuments. Even so, it is gross injustice to this beautiful woman that nobody knows her sparkling abilities as a baker—she makes absolutely fabulous baked Christmas pudding and fettuccini bread. But did The Delhi Walla tell you of her frail, beautiful mother Mehjabeen, who retired years ago as a librarian in Delhi Public School (Mathura Road branch) and is still fondly remembered by generations of ex-DPS students. There is barely any dish that the soft-spoken Mehjabeen doesn’t make brilliantly, and her khichda—a dish of dal and meat usually made in Muharram-is to

The great chef’s life in Delhi. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] I love to cook with wine—says a placard hanging on her drawing room wall. One night The Delhi Walla enters the second-floor apartment of Rosalyn D'Mello, the author of A Handbook for My Lover. Ms D’Mello shares her home in Kailash Hills with her sister, Ramona, who works in a publishing house. The two women are from Goa—but they grew up in Kurla, Bombay—a calendar in the kitchen shows a picture of that city's St Andrew's Church (see photo 4 below). And, in case you are wondering, both Ms D'Mello and her sister do mull over wine while playing around with pots and pans. Sometimes they... well, never mind. Ms D'Mello,

The great chef’s life in Venice. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] The spirit of a place can exist in the memories of a person. Gina Mondovecchi has that relation to Venice. To those who knew her, she was the city's most stylish woman. Always seen in exquisite dresses, big hats and sandals with high heels, she herself designed her dresses, hats and sandals. She lived alone but was rumored to have many lovers. A record keeper in the island cemetery of San Michele, she died a few years ago. An ardent monarchist until her final breath, her last name means 'old times' in Italian. It is also said that Ms Mondovecchi had a passion for pasta e fagioli. She always treated

The great chef’s life in Delhi. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] This is the closest The Delhi Walla could get to the legendary author of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I’m standing within a touching distance of a woman who walks the same stairs that the great Julia Child used to walk. Liter Basar is a bakery scholar at Le Cordon Bleu, the prestigious cooking school in Paris where Julia Child learned French cuisine. I catch Ms Basar at her home in Delhi’s Hazrat Nizamuddin East just in time-- she is flying back to Charles de Gaulle tomorrow afternoon by Air India. Ms Basar is in town on a brief holiday to be with her husband, Apurva, her little son,