This week I am going to surprise you—it is my dad’s favourite book, I think. 'Indian Cookery' by Madhur Jaffrey is a book of which I have very fond memories. My father worked in India for quite a while when I was growing up. He was on an exchange trip with Westminster College, where he taught cookery, and on his return we ate like kings as he had learned how to cook very good Indian food from some brilliant chefs in Delhi at the Oberoi—a rather swanky hotel/college. I remember he interviewed Madhur Jaffrey for his dissertation along with Sally Clarke, another famous chef. But the use of subtle spice here is crucial.

This book was published by the BBC to accompany a television programme. There are dishes I remember with great fondness from my youth, and still to this day I often talk to my father about a dish from it, ask his advice about a method or just talk about the delight of cooking with various spices. Here, the use of spice is not all about heat and strong use of chilli. Yes, it can be, but one of my favourite dishes my dad used to make was a cauliflower dish with black mustard seeds, cumin and turmeric—not spicy at all, but very flavoursome. The prawns with courgettes is a good dish, and the naan recipe is brilliant—we make it at home every time we make a curry.

I would urge everyone to have this timeless classic in their collection. Remember, this book is from 1982—the year we went to war over the Falklands, when we all ate mince and tatties and pots of cottage pies, hot pot, a roast on Sunday, and ‘spag bol’ was still very new. So this book broke the mould, I would say. I was talking to Pete, my sous chef, about it, and he is aware of the book too and has cooked from it—so that made me smile.