A loss to Delhi cuisine

On the death of an exceptionally skilled culinary expert

- Mayank Austen Soofi

Late author Sadia Dehlvi's drawing room in Hazrat Nizamuddin East was a gossip adda for the capital's elite. Its other draw was Sadia's homemade meals. They offered the choicest of traditional Purani Dilli cuisine, including dishes that have become extinct.

Sadia's comrade in the kitchen was her cook, Muhammed Sabir. A friendly gent with carefully combed hair and a confident booming voice, Sabir had been a staffer at Sadia's household for 20 years. This was a period long enough for the UP native to himself become a master of Purani Dilli cuisine. Over the years, he had picked up culinary tips, techniques and authentic recipes from his historically minded employer, who inherited her formidable cooking skills from her ancestral roots in Old Delhi's Phatak Habash Khan neighbourhood.