Exploring the Flavors of India: A Cookbook by Pushpesh Pant

Mike ThornburyMike Thornbury: This is not my first Phaidon Press book, and that was for a reason.

They are like an encyclopaedia of ethnic food, written by a subject-matter expert. But as well as their 'data' content, they are masterpieces of graphic design and typesetting, as befits a printing house that started as a publisher of Art books - beautifully put together, with quirky little touches - Mexico comes with a paper lace outer cover, India comes in a shopping bag of the sort you would see in any Indian market. Page references are like the little paper price sticker you see in every ethnic market.

Well organised, beautifully photographed, they are as much a pleasure to read as they are to use for reference.

My wife is not a cook and she couldn't wait to browse through it and find me recipes to make, excitedly exclaiming over some as-yet untried regional speciality.

From a cooks logistical perspective, every recipe details the number of item or servings, the region the dish comes from, the reference page for photos, etc. in a clear easy-to-read font, with two ribbon bookmarks - one for dinner, one for starter or dessert.

Despite its size the paper used is relatively...

Australia on Oct 25, 2023

Christopher Southworth: This cookbook has a great number of full-colour photographs, but the bulk of the tome is comprised of pages which appear nearly like newsprint on single-coloured paper. It feels like a sort of food-based telephone directory, and I, for one, find its utter lack of pretentiousness completely charming. Haven't we all seen enough overproduced high-gloss vanity projects chock full of beautifully staged food which nonetheless seems absolutely unappetizing? Use your imagination to great effect here and learn the ingredients by working with them in a hands-on manner. Experience will prove a far better teacher than following a book which reads like a wiring diagram. Some of the descriptions are a bit vague, true, but to pad a 815-page doorstop like this would be a bit unnecessary. The recipes are fascinating, and history about the food traditions of various regions is at the beginning of the book so as to not weigh down the recipes themselves with idle nattering about someone's 17-stop train journey or their pilgrimage to get a single leaf from a tree on a mountaintop or such nonsense. You're here to learn about food, right? Then roll up your sleeves and hop to it!

Canada on Apr 16, 2022

Vasco de Orey: Coverage nearly impeccable.
Lack of food recipes for Goa a serious fault. (Indian food using pork and veal).
That cold be complemented.
Other than that 5 stars.

Spain on Oct 12, 2021

Nandini: Beaucoup de recettes, c'est impressionnant
En anglais bien sûr mais assez facile de s'y retrouver pas trop de blabla sur les recettes même
des recettes pas forcément connues, il y a de tout
le papier est fin il faut en prendre soin par contre mais moi j'aime justement ce touché !
Et je suis une grande cuisinière de cuisine indienne, j'anime des ateliers ...
J'en apprends encore avec ce livre donc c'est pour dire qu'il est intéressant surtout pour ceux qui en ont déjà pas mal de livres de cuisine indienne

France on Mar 02, 2021

RPM: So when I started researching Indian cookbooks, I had a very specific thing in mind. I wanted a comprehensive cookbook that represented all the various cuisines of India and remained true to traditional ingredients and preparation methods. Too often Indian cookbooks for foreign markets use substitutes for uncommon ingredients, make accomodations for methods, and represent a very narrow slice of the regional cuisines. They are primarily meant for home kitchens.

This is not that type of book...at all.

Pushpeth Pant, as a professor, seems far more interested in the preservation and proper representation of regional cuisines, and as such the book goes into culinary territories well outside of what you'd find in other cookbooks....and it's fantastic!

But be aware that because of this, it's really a book for chefs and those committed to a much deeper understanding of Indian cuisine. If you have NO understanding of basic techniques and preparations in Indian cooking, this probably wouldn't be a good place to start. It has no instruction on such things.

But for those with some experience, it's easily one of the best cookbooks out there. Enjoy :)

United States on Jul 24, 2020

liazid: Eu gostaria de parabenizar o vendedor pelo envio rápido da encomenda. O contato com ele foi excelente e se mostrou prestativo. O livro chegou em perfeito estado, O livro está em língua inglesa, porém não apresentou dificuldade em usá-lo, as medidas estão também descritas em unidades de medidas nossas (ml, gramas). Realizei uma primeira receita básica (paratha) e ficou ótimo. Ainda não tive o tempo de consultá-lo em detalhe, porém parece mesmo rico e denso. Parabéns a Amazon pela eficácia e presteza do serviço, sendo exemplar.. encomendei este livro em outra livraria concorrente, e nunca chegou, sem nenhuma informação a respeito. Aqui foi possível acompanhar o processo a todos os momentos. Eu recomendo tanto essa compra quanto o vendedor.

Brazil on May 14, 2020

Vuong M. Nguyen: I purchased this book a couple years ago, but I haven't cooked from it until now. Over the summer, my sister and I ate an Indian restaurant every other week, but when our schedules diverged, I decided to make a project out of this book by starting to cook from it. This book has so many different dishes to choose from, it may intimidate the beginning cook. Indeed, I don't recommend this for those just learning to cook or those who prefer in-depth recipes. I say this for just about any of the Phaidon cookbook bibles (except maybe the Nordic one, which was well executed): there are hardly contexts, the directions are generally summarized, and Phaidon cookbooks require a little bit of know-how and intuition (the previous editor of the Phaidon cookbooks allowed many measurement errors to slip into these bibles, which you can read about in the other book reviews). Interestingly, this one does not have measurement errors, at least in the recipes I have tried so far, but this could be attributed to the fact that Indian cuisine is not standardized and allows for much leeway and reinterpretation (see Monisha Bharadwaj's The Indian Cooking Course). My recommendation for those learning to...

United States on Dec 10, 2017

Coffee Lover: Just looking through this book at the fabulous photos and the charming multicolored Indian paper, brings me joy. My family and I lived several years in Nepal and I graduated from high school in India. Though an American, I could eat Indian food every day, 7 days a week. Not only am I thrilled to have so many new recipes to try but since I collect Indian and Nepali cookbooks, the very design of the cookbook was enough to hook me and the accompanying rice bag tote was the icing on the cake. I plan to buy more as gifts for my family and friends. I have not come across the glaring deficiencies described in some of the reviews though I understand there have been edits made since the first edition. That being said, if there were not some errors in a book with 1000 recipes, I would be greatly surprised. Though I have at least 30 Indian cookbooks, this promises to be my all time favorite. I just received it today so I will update my review when I have actually tried out some of the recipes though the ones I have read, that I am familiar with, seem spot on.

United States on Apr 18, 2015

Lori A. Gonzalez: I'd been cooking Indian food for years when I bought this book (I'm not Indian, though). I absolutely love it because it has what I want: new recipes I am unfamiliar with. ("Fenugreek seeds and Raisins" - I cannot wait!!!!) This is not a good book for someone who has never cooked Indian food. For that, my personal favorite is Julie Sahni's "Classic Indian Cooking" and "Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking" (or something like that). This is not a coffee table book. It is a cookbook, for people who cook (just like sheet music looks boring to those who don't play an instrument). I just got it and have been really really pleased with the recipes I have made.

The only drawback is the paper it is printed on- seems very absorbant, like a small drop of oil could seep into an underlying page. I suspect that time will not be kind to the paper. Also, again, if you are unfamiliar cooking Indian food, you may have some frustrating expereiences, so best to start with a different book. (I do beg to differ with the statement on the cover, "The Only book on Indian food you'll ever need")

For me, its a little slice of heaven, just what I've been wanting.

United States on Jan 09, 2011