MY FAVOURITE DISH URVASHI ROE'S SPICED ROTLI SOUP

Born in Tanzania to Gujarati parents, the former Great British Bake Off contestant, food writer and tutor shares her love of snacks and comfort food that celebrates her cultural heritage

-  TONY NAYLOR

Food is, quite simply, a way of communicating, believes Urvashi Roe. It breaks the ice and gets people talking. "People form relationships around food, communicating something of their life and what they're passionate about. Every day, we break down barriers through food," she says.

This explains why, at the same time as forging a highly successful corporate career, the 51-year-old works part-time as a cookery tutor, writer, stylist and recipe developer. A former contestant on The Great British Bake Off, Urvashi ran a community café in north London during a career break and recently published her debut cookbook, Biting Biting: snacking Gujarati-style (£20, Kitchen Press). The book is an exploration of all kinds of tasty snacks, such as samosas, kachori and chickpea flour fafra crispbreads - known collectively as farsan.

Born in Tanzania (her Gujarati family left East Africa for London in the 1970s), Urvashi is a languages graduate who saw how food brought international students together while studying in Europe. She sees the book as her contribution to helping people get to know traditional foods from the Gujarati region.

"At the age of five, coming from Dodoma in Tanzania to this alien city, London, was very stressful. I didn't speak English well. I was very shy. We were bullied on the estate where we lived and then again at school. Food was my comfort blanket. I'd go home after school to the familiar smells of incense in the air and Mum cooking roti, dhal and shaak - something I could relate to - and, in that way, home felt safe.