Countless Kitchens, One Collection

Traditional Indian recipes aren't merely meals, but heirlooms of flavour and memory — where spices are added by instinct, not by measure, and each dish is perfected over decades of religious practice in kitchens.

- NIDHARSHANA RAJU

Collecting and sourcing these recipes from across India's humble kitchens was a relatively easy task for Sarika Gupta when compared to translating instinct into exactness. But through perseverance, she says, she managed to not only write an entire book with over 100 vegetarian recipes on her phone, but to have her first edition be completely sold out.

Now, out with the second edition of 28 States 28 Plates, Sarika says, "I spent so many hours in my kitchen, perfecting the measurements and adjusting the taste of each dish. I must have prepared every recipe four to five times," says Sarika who is based in Thiruvananthapuram.