The great chef’s life in Delhi. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Meet Radhika Singh, the Julia Child of West Delhi’s Janak Puri. Ms Singh is very special. Indeed, she is the best cook in the world. So says her daughter’s friend Nayantara Shaunik. So says her daughter, Tanya. So says her son, Tanuj. So says her mother-in-law, Shakuntala. (The Delhi Walla could not verify the claims from her husband, Atul, who had gone to survey his mango orchard situated outside the city.) Ms Singh’s cooking is so popular that both her children have to carry unusually large lunchboxes every day to their respective colleges to feed friends who live for their mother’s food. However, the sweetly modest Ms Singh credits her cooking

The great chef’s life in Delhi. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Meet the Julia Child of South Delhi’s Greater Kailash Enclave Part-I. In her mid-80s, Sakina Mehta finds happiness in listening to birdsongs. She divides her time between her home in Bombay and her daughter Himani Dehlvi’s home in Delhi. Ms Mehta is a Bohra Muslim, a community with distinct culinary traditions. She grew up in Bombay with six sisters; there she married Tyeb Mehta, who went on to become one of India’s most celebrated painters. Ms Mehta also lived for a long time in Delhi with her late husband during his years of struggle. Here the couple shared a small rented apartment in Hazrat Nizamuddin East—at that time it was

The great chef’s life in Delhi. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Meet the Julia Child of South Delhi’s Greater Kailash Enclave Part-I. Himani Dehlvi lives in a cheery sun-filled apartment with husband, Vaseem, and cook, Zakir. A 50-something filmmaker, she is famous for her ‘go-to’ mutton kofta. This much-loved dish is not only a permanent invitee to Ms Dehlvi’s parties, but also to those of her friends. Ms Dehlvi originally showed no promise of being a kitchen diva. Her lukewarm experiments with cooking began quite late in life. She was already in her 20s and was living in a rented garage-like room in Defence Colony. Her then boyfriend did his best to keep her away from the hot plate. Vaseem

The great chef’s life in Delhi. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Meet the Julia Child of Gurgaon’s DLF Park Place, an address so exclusive that it has its own helipad. Fortunately Santosh Rani has no respect for her neighborhood’s expat-friendly coldness. Loving and welcoming, the quiet-mannered matriarch presides over her family in a 30th floor apartment. Her balcony looks to a panoramic view of the Aravalis, her drawing-room walls are decked with photographs of Venice and her kitchen is unconsciously Punjabi. Born a few months before the independence, Ms Rani grew up in Amritsar, Punjab. Her most abiding memory of that town is of her mother Swarajvati and her kitchen. “It is very difficult to pinpoint Chaiji’s best dish,” she says,

The great chef’s life in Delhi. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Meet the Julia Child of south Delhi’s quiet and serene neighborhood Asian Games Village. A sociology professor, Kiranmayi Bhushi lives in a book-filled apartment. She shares it with her cat, Maharani. (The terrace with its dozens of plants is especially lovely.) Ms Bhushi hails from Hyderabad, though she has been living in Delhi for 30 years. In 2009, she co-founded the iconic but now-defunct Gunpowder restaurant in Hauz Khas Village. “One of the most popular dishes in Gunpowder was the sweet & sour pumpkin,” says Ms Bhushi. Here is the recipe of this dish. Sweet & sour pumpkin is called gummadi kai in Telugu. Its recipe is a recollection of

The great chef’s life in Delhi. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Meet the Julia Child of BK Dutt Colony, a quiet middle-class neighbourhood in central Delhi, next-door to the posh Jor Bagh. In her 30s, writer Victoria Burrows lives in a two-room apartment with her leopard-striped, semi-civilised former street cat, Perdita. She has piles of food books in her drawing room and pots of lemon grass, basil and mint plants on her terrace, which is partially claimed by the thick leafy branches of an Indian lilac. Ms Burrows loves to eat – she recently discovered a new place in the nearby Meharchand Market that serves “oily and delicious” Chicken Changezi. But she won’t tell The Delhi Walla its name until she herself

The great chef’s life in Delhi. [Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi] Meet the Julia Child of BK Dutt Colony, a quiet neighbourhood in central Delhi. Having an unending curiosity for authentic cuisines, Ms Child runs Eat and Dust, a blog on food adventures in India. The escapades are primarily confined to Old Delhi, where she spends her time tasting the dishes, chatting with vendors and getting the recipes. In fact, Ms Child goes to the Walled City so often that most food vendors in the area have gotten used to the sight of her walking down the lanes with her notebook and camera. They know her, she knows them. Once she stopped by the Old & Famous Jalebi Walla in