Tandoori Chicken in Delhi

A Vintage Shorts Travel Selection

Before she was a seven-time James Beard Award-winning cookbook author, or a Berlinale star, Madhur Jaffrey was a little girl growing up in an India in transition. In this selection from her acclaimed autobiography, Climbing the Mango Trees, she shares her food memories from one of the most turbulent times in modern history.

As Partition split her country in half, everything changed for young Madhur Jaffrey. Here she recounts what it was like to live through this time of immense upheaval, from independence from Britain to the tragic death of Mahatma Gandhi. In spite of all that was happening around her, Jaffrey’s great passion—food—remained the center of her life. Here, in mouthwatering detail, she remembers the koftas and karhi, the paneer and pooris that defined these years for her every bit as much as the dramatic events that shook the subcontinent.

An eBook short.