In Ray Bradbury’s 1957 book, Dandelion Wine, the young protagonist writes about witnessing the magic of his grandmother’s cooking: “Her hands then, like the hands of great grandma before her, were grandma’s mystery, delight, and life.” More recently, in Julia Child Rules: Lessons on Savouring Life, Karen Karbo says, “Behind every Michelin guide chef there was a woman, usually a four-foot cataract-ridden old granny from whom he’d filched his best recipes.”

Bandra-based chef Smita Deo agrees, “Every recipe has a story to tell”, usually about the lineage of women who’ve passed down recipes, like gastronomical memories, generation after generation. “I’ve learned a lot about cooking from my grandmother, my mother, my kaki, my mother-in-law, and my husband’s grandmother.”