Meet Madhur Jaffrey: First woman who introduced desi food to the West
Jaffrey, who was born in Delhi’s Civil Lanes and raised in the British Raj, moved to London when she was 19 years old to pursue a career in acting and joined the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).
Hyderabad: The celebrated cookbook author, television chef, travel and food writer and actor, Madhur Jaffery is credited for popularising desi cuisines in the West and is known as the First Lady of Global Indian cuisine. From a complete non-cooking person to becoming a Padma Bhushan awardee for her contribution to culinary arts, her journey is an inspirational one.
Jaffrey, who was born in Delhi’s Civil Lanes and raised in the British Raj, moved to London when she was 19 years old to pursue a career in acting and joined the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). She reportedly was not impressed by the food there and so has learnt to cook using recipes that were provided in correspondence from her mother.
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She eventually began writing food articles and providing cooking classes in her neighbourhood. Her first book, ‘An Invitation to Indian Cooking’, was published in 1973. Throughout her career, she has written over a dozen cookbooks and hosted various television shows, the most notable of which being ‘Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cookery’, which debuted in the United Kingdom in 1982.
The show was the first to be presented by an Indian and was an instant success. Her recipes have become highly popular. “I remember reading articles like they had run out of green coriander in Manchester because I had made a dish the day before with chicken cooked with it. It really changed the way the English were eating Indian food,” she said in an interview with ‘BBC’.
Aside from her accidental cooking career, Jaffrey is a renowned actor and the only Indian to be named best actress at the Berlin Film Festival in 1965 for the film ‘Shakespeare Wallah’. The 88-year-old is still active in the public spotlight, with her most recent appearance in the ‘Sex and the City’ spin-off ‘And Just Like That’.
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