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The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.

I started cooking from watching my mom. My mother was a really, really great cook.

My grandmother was a typical farm-family mother. She would regularly prepare dinner for thirty people, and that meant something was always cooking in the kitchen. All of my grandmother's recipes went back to her grandmother.

The culinary tradition in my family is very strong. My mother, a very wise woman, spent the better part of her life in a kitchen. It's a very strong part of her identity. I grew up there next to the fire.

My mother used to make the most amazing yogurt.

Between the ages of six and nine, my palette was taking shape as well as my identity as a chef. It was then that I learned the difference between salty, sweet, sour and even spicy.

We make authentic Maharashtrian food at home. My mother supervises the preparation and the menu every day. She has been doing this since before I was born. I absolutely love the mutton sukka that she makes.

As a child, I'd help my mum cook, and it was ridiculous - she had the correct gadget or utensil for everything. 'Stop! Don't use that, I have exactly the right utensil.' After I left home, I survived on cup-a-meals and never saw myself as being like her. Now I've become her.

My mum and dad are pretty amazing chefs and they spent most of my childhood cooking really extravagant things for my sister and me.