OFM’s classic cookbook: Madhur Jaffrey’s An Invitation to Indian Cooking

Published in 1973, An Invitation to Indian Cooking made Madhur Jaffrey an ambassador for the food of her homeland. Darina Allen pays tribute

Madhur Jaffrey was one of the very first guest teachers at the Ballymaloe Cookery School, in 1986. I knew about Madhur from her BBC series, and my mother-in-law, Myrtle, had some of her books, including An Invitation To Indian Cooking, which we used to cook a lot from.

I had never rung America before [Jaffrey lives in New York]. It sounds ridiculous now, but it took courage to dial. She came with her husband, Sanford, and has been now four or five times. She’s super elegant and gracious. The first time she came, she looked at our spices rather sniffily – she’d brought some with her. I remember her running her hands through the rice we had. She sent Tim, my husband, off with Sanford to the English Market in Cork to a shop there called Mr Bell’s, and Sanford showed us how to recognise good quality rice through its smell and the texture.