Cooking of the Maharajas: The Royal Recipes of India

Food-its preparation, presentation, and delectation-has for centuries been an integral, significant part of the culture of India, touching all aspects of Indian life from religion, art, and literature to history and social convention. Traditionally, the highest level of Indian cuisine has been found in the royal kitchens of the maharajas, the one-time rulers of India's princely states, but with the disappearance of the maharajas, that great culinary tradition-passed down through the years from cook to cook as a kind of gospel for the table-has been nearly forgotten. The authors of this book are in a unique position to rescue this remarkable cuisine from obscurity, and to preserv its finest recipes along with the legends and stories that have always accompanied them. Shivaji Rao Holkar, the formr Maharaja of Indore in Central India, and his American-born wife, Shalini Devi-a superb cook and delightful writer-have traveled through the country since their marriage in 1966, collecting recipes from palace chefs, testing dishes (in American and European kitchens as wll as in India), and studying the vast literature of Indian food and cooking. This beautiful book is the result of their researches: a collection of over 100 recipes, handsomely illustrated with photographs and drawings, and further illuminated by a rich sampling of Indian legend and lore as recorded in the old texts or imprinted on the memories of former princes and their master chefs. These are not Americanized adaptations but authentic meals-and from the rich Mughal dishes of Delhi to the intriguing vegetarian recipes of Southern India; each can be reproduced exactly in American kitchens in its truly exotic and surprisingly low-cost form. A book to dress up any dinner, The Cooking of the Maharajas has a very special, and very genuine, appeal.