My grandmother, Thayanayagee Pillay, was a formidable woman. She lived through the great influenza epidemic, both world wars and apartheid. She was a phenomenal chef who fearlessly fed the treason trialists in 1957 on meagre donations. Nelson Mandela called her one of the brightest culinary stars he knew. When I was a child, she would regale me with wartime stories — how her family of eight were rationed down to two cubes of sugar, 400g of flour and two eggs per week. She lived through times of great scarcity, so she valued everything and wasted nothing. She loved the George Bernard Shaw saying, "There is no sincerer love than the love of food." And I can honestly say I "sincerely" love food as a result of her amazing cooking. Food is a golden thread connecting every facet of Indian culture. If we weren’t cooking or eating, we were thinking about what to cook. We celebrate everything with food from Diwali to Eid and Christmas. And yet I have to confess that unlike my grandmother who...
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