Meera Muzaffar Ali FASHION DESIGNER AND AUTHOR - CUSTODIAN OF CULTURE

Meera Muzaffar Ali hails from the erstwhile ruling family of Kotwara in Lucknow. In her book Dining With The Nawabs, she combines her insider knowledge with in-depth research of India and Pakistan to preserve the culinary history of past sovereigns. The gourmand gets candid with CHIRAG MOHANTY SAMAL about her travels and the novel fine dining experience she hosts in Gurugram

- CHIRAG MOHANTY SAMAL 

Dining With The Nawabs reveals culinary secrets of erstwhile rulers. How difficult was it to compile?

When I started, I thought it wouldn’t be that difficult to put together a few recipes and get the book going. But I realised that recipes are not how you deal with the story of cuisines. It was important to know the families, their culture, their past and present. So many layers revealed themselves to me as I started the work, and it became extensive.

Tell us about some of the places you travelled to for the research.

One of the families we chose was from Surat and Kamadhia in Gujarat. Fortunately, they were living in Mumbai. They had a lot of photographs. Then I met the royal family from Bhopal, Paigah family of Hyderabad, and the Rampur family. All of them had a rich repository of recipes and anecdotes to offer. The Arcot family in Tamil Nadu and the Zainabad family from Rann of Kutch had an interesting approach to food. I also went across the border to Pakistan, Bahawalpur, and then to Khairpur in Sindh.

What’s the best way of preserving our culinary history and heritage?