Kumar Mahadevan - From India: food, family and tradition

vannakkam

welcome to our table

Vannakkam is a Tamil saying meaning welcome. The people of this state, where I was born, have a belief that serving food to others is a service to mankind. Share our culture, family, traditions and our journey around India in this book, and learn to cook the food we love most.

kumar

Our family has an astrologer we turn to for advice when we need to make important decisions. Astrology is an ancient science and we are fortunate to have a good astrologer. He helped me find my wife, Suba, and weve been married for twenty-five years. It seemed like an odd match, but he was right. My life hasnt turned out the way some expected, but I couldnt be happier. Perhaps some things are written in the stars, but we cant always see it.

I grew up in a town called Tirunelveli, in the state of Tamil Nadu, near the southern tip of India. It sits on the western side of the Thamirabarani River, 700 kilometres southwest of the capital, Chennai. Everyone knew our place as House Number 108. I lived there with my grandmother Meenakshi, her two sons, my dad and uncle, and their wives, my mum and aunty, and my brother, who now lives in Australia, a sister and four cousins.

Patti, a term of respect for grandmother, is the biggest influence on my cooking. My grandmother is the SALT, the prime ingredient that shaped my childhood. Patti had an amazing sense of smell, which is something I got from her. Smell is my greatest sense. Its my driving force in the kitchen and a key part of taste. My chefs tell me I should have been a sniffer dog. Patti Meenakshi never cooked once her children married. She sat in the corner of the kitchen watching her daughters-in-law, telling them what to do, especially the order in which spices should be added, and then sniffing the air saying, Thats burnt! or The aroma is lost! She was a perfectionist.

When I started doing that to my mum, Gomathi, she responded, Youre worse than my mother-in-law!

We are vegetarians and Patti was very firm and strict about what made a good meal. It had to include four different vegetables, two types of lentils, two chutneys, pappadoms and pickles, and two rice dishes or chapatis, but all in small amounts. She preferred variety and quality to quantity. To this day, I like my meals the same way, with all the condiments, even when I get home from work at midnight and feel hungry. My wife thinks Im a little crazy, but she understands why.

Patti would serve us when we came home from school for lunch and teach us about the right flavour combinations and how to balance a meal. She had mystery tasting and testing games, asking us if we could pick up hidden spices and ingredients. Meals were often shared with friends and neighbours and with Patti in charge it made them fun, loving and also educational.

My grandmother is the salt , the prime
ingredient that shaped my childhood.

By the time I was seven, I was very curious about flavour and taste, but Mum and Dad would say to me, Control your tongue! They meant you wont be academic if you give importance to your tongue. Your brain will go numb from eating so much and you wont concentrate on study. Thats a Brahmin philosophy. I was raised Hindu as a Brahmin, the priestly class. Brahmins are quite academic and intellectual. Theyre not necessarily gourmets. They like clean tastes. Ive changed a lot since then, but my food is still about clean, clear flavours.