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Cook books …The new runaway
bestsellers by Gyan Marwah
The current bestsellers are neither thrillers nor the Harry Potters. Cook books are notching up megabuck sales. Smelling the good stuff, publishers are rushing out with an array of titles, many of them specialist recipes--Marwari, Hyderabadi, Parsi, tandoori and microwave…..
What do mechanical engineer Arun Mehdiratha, Major Shamsher Singh, chartered accountant Ravi Menon and jet-setting entrepreneur Suman Khanna have in common? They are all gourmet cooks. And they are a part of a new successful breed spending leisure hours with mixers, blenders, ovens, microwaves and the good old-fashioned rolling pin and churning out delightful dishes. All thanks to the proliferation of cook books that are notching up splendid sales. Smelling the good stuff, publishers are rushing out with an array of cook books, many of them specialist in nature-Marwari, Hyderabadi, Parsi, tandoori and microwave. Kitchen in print has come a long way from 1932, when the first Indian cookery book was written by Vira Swamy. Among the current hot sellers are Eileen Turner's The Colour Book of Indian Cookery (Octopus Books, London), Manju Shivraj Singh's Royal Indian Cookery (Windward, London), Rohini Singh's Creative Cookery (Rupa India) Ranjit Rai's Curry, Curry, Curry (Penguin India) and Madhur Jaffrey’s Foolproof Indian Cookery. The all-time superstar authors, of course, are Sanjeev Kapoor and Tarla Dalal whose books have sold in millions. One of the most complete books on tandoori cooking is Ranjit Rai's Curry, Curry, Curry which has been well received not only by the Indian market but also in western countries. Says a spokesman of Penguin Books: "It is not merely a collection of recipes but a well-researched book on the business of food. The author has gone into the details of the social structure behind each recipe and also the health aspect of every masala." Says Hridyaya Shastri of Bookworm Publishing : "The demand for such books has increased as more and more women are opting out of kitchen for office jobs. To compensate for the time lost outside the kitchen they need recipes for fast as well as healthy foods. People are becoming calorie-conscious and many books give the calorie counts of ingredients that go into cooking." What he doesn't add is the spiraling cost of eating out. The brisk sale of cookery books is directly related to the high prices at restaurants, which usually serve oil-soaked foods. As the interaction between people from diverse regions increases, more and more are coming forward to try out food from different parts of the country. For them, books on specialised cuisines like Gujarati, Parsi, south Indian, Mughalai and Kashmiri are aplenty. Tarla Dalal is now targeting her books on specific markets. One of her books is aimed at sportsmen. On the anvil are books on party cooking, for teenagers and for those over 50. Journalist Mandeep Bajaj is doing a book for bachelors and Premila Lal of the Indian Recipes fame has been commissioned to author one on microwaved meat dishes. Actress Madhur Jaffrey has brought out seven cook books, two of them receiving rave reviews all over the world. Dakshin Bharat by Jaya Shenoy and JerooMehta's 101 Parsi Recipes, a rage among those who relish dhansak and patra-ni-machchi. There are some excellent books in Urdu like Lucknow ka Dastarkhan and Raisia ka Dastarkhan. Apart from these are the glossy books, mostly imported. Says Vineet Nanda author of My Kind of Food: "Books published abroad have a wonderful reproduction of photographs. But nothing more than that. And when they first appear in the market, they are priced too high for an average housewife. In the next round, the publishers are compelled to sell them off at half the price." Most cookery books published in India are moderately priced, ranging from Rs 30 to Rs 200. And some of the prominent writers have also done little booklets that are distributed with pressure-cookers, stoves and kitchen mixers. Even as the demand for Italian, Mexican and Thai food increases in India, there is a growing market for Indian food in western countries. In several European nations, Punjabi and south Indian restaurants have sprung up. In England alone there are about 70 Udipi restaurants. Special Ingredients Julie Sahani’s Classic Indian Cooking is virtually a complete course in Indian cuisine. The book systematically introduces the properties of all the basic spices and special ingredients of Indian food and then explains the techniques employed in using them, always with the help of comparisons to familiar Western methods. Royal Indian Cookery too is doing exceedingly well. Its author, Manju Shivraj Singh is the niece of the late Maharaja Bhawani Singh of Jaipur. The book gives out the royal recipes of Rajasthan which include delicacies like Queen's Favourite Dal and King's Curry. It also incorporates such exotic stuff as Railway Station Potato Curry and Poppadum Spring Rolls. The master chefs of the Ashok Group of Hotels have got together to bring out Royal Indian Recipes a book based on the delectable food they have been serving up to visiting dignitaries and heads of states. Liquor baron Rocky Mohan’s Kohinoor of Rice & Spice [Roli Books] is a celebration of rice dishes. A collection of 40 different preparations from different regions ranging from Shahjehani Biryani to Cheemeem Pulau and from Dewanee Kitchree to Tamatar Palak Bhaat. " Though a lot of people can afford good basmati rice, not many know how to get the best results and extract the true qualities of this wonder grain. My endeavour has been to educate people on how to get the best results while cooking basmati rice," says the author. Vineet Nanda says his cook book is a compilation of various dishes which "my grandmother used to cook. While writing my book I consulted my aunts and uncles and also recollected from memory what my granny used to cook for me. And before writing out the recipes I tasted and tried every single dish." His favourite dish is sarson ka saag with chapattis cooked the previous day---a food habit still prevalent in many Punjab villages. A commercial accountant who has a flourishing practice in Delhi, the 53-year-old Nanda is writing yet another book called Rural India Tandoor which he hopes to complete by the end of the year. Says he: " Tandoor is the most efficient oven in the world. No microwave or electric grill can compete with it." Nanda is right. And a lot of palates are waiting to be tickled. So, too, the taste-buds of publishers! ***** |
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