Mid-Day

For the book’s research, Radhakrishna went into libraries looking for archival papers, found out the why and whereof a dish, why people use a certain spice or ingredient—even though she knew most of this research wouldn’t make it to the cookbook. “Maybe I am old-fashioned, but I don’t trust the Internet for authenticity,” she says. “Recipes online are often diluted with modern innovations. Instead, I took it directly from experts. Most didn’t know how to give measurements—they cook with andaz. So, I ended up deciphering their, ‘little this’ and ‘somewhat that’ by trying it out myself. I feel if you standardise the recipe, it turns out the exact way it was intended to.”