The Baked Alaska was one of the great show-off desserts of the 1970s (and perhaps the 1980s). Unfortunately, chefs don’t bother with it much these days.

At university, we were divided first, into colleges, and then, within the college, into staircases marking the blocks where we actually lived. Each staircase had about a dozen undergraduates and possibly, a don or two. [Read more]

In the old days, long before we had speciality restaurants, we had all-purpose restaurants that stayed open all day and served every kind of cuisine. In Bombay, such restaurants lined both sides of Churchgate Street. In Delhi, they were scattered all over Connaught Place. [Read more]

Kheer is the greatest rice pudding in the world, an international dessert combining three cooking traditions: India, the Middle East and the West. [Read more]

When it comes to Chinese food, I judge restaurants by their fried rice. If a kitchen can’t turn out a good fried rice, the rest of the food will be pretty lousy too.

Different people have different ways of judging a restaurant. Some Europeans will tell you that the true test of a kitchen is the quality of the stock. If that’s no good, then nothing – the soups, the sauces, the flavours etc. – will taste right. [Read more]

The samosa is the archetypal Indian snack. You can have hot samosas with your tea or you can have them cold, several hours after they have been made. You can have your samosas filled with spicy keema or you can have totally vegetarian versions filled with potatoes, paneer or even peas and French beans. You can enjoy the hefty Punjabi version or you can have the thinner, more delicate Bohra version from Bombay. You can eat your samosa on the railway platform in Ambala or you can buy it from a bakery in Alleppey. [Read more]