Indian food rock star

ALL DAHL'D UP: RECIPE COLLECTION LEAVES YOUR TASTE BUDS ZINGING

- Hein Kaiser

MasterChef winner and chef at large Kamini Pather is the rock star of Indian cooking. Her new collection of recipes, All Dahl'd Up, the sheet music to food, will have your taste buds zinging.

Pather is not a stereotypical chef and neither is the book just a collection of recipes.

All Dahl'd Up is not another monologue dedicated to memory, identity and how food mirrors life and other clichés.

While the recipes are cemented in the Durban home she grew up in, they've taken detours through world travel, personal health and a desire to strip Indian cuisine of its heavy reputation.

Think less deep-fried samosas and more tamarind-laced aubergine that you can knock together on a Tuesday night and still make book club.

"The book is incredibly personal," Pather said. "It's how I see Indian food. Some of it is what I grew up with, and some of it is what I've added to the mix along the way."

She spent time with her 91-year-old grandmother, learning unmeasured family recipes.

Not 10ml of this and 20 cups of that, just a pinch and a cinch kind of cooking.