Serving Home On Aplate

FROM KOLKATA TO LONDON AND NOW TO NETFLIX, CHEF ASMA KHAN’S JOURNEY, LIKE HER FOOD, IS FULL OF SURPRISES

- Anita Roy

The gaajar ka halwa came in a tiny orange dome, grooved on all sides from the mould it was made on, like some architectural detail from a Mughal tomb, inlaid with slivers of pistachio.

You’ll have to forgive my flights of poetry, but Asma Khan’s food demands—and provokes—nothing less. Food, for Asma, is not simply about the ingredients or the process of cooking, nor even about how a dish is served. Food is life. It is love. It is the soil upon which we stand and to which we will ourselves return. It is politics and friendship and solidarity. It is the great leveller and the great elevator.