Christine Manfield: Tasting India

With its luxurious silk cover, National Geographic-quality photos and authentic heirloom recipes from various regions of India, Christine Manfield’s Tasting India is arguably the only book you need about India and its food. Indeed, India Today was so impressed that they called for it to replace Camellia Panjabi’s venerable 50 Great Curries as the gift to give newly-wed couples heading off to live overseas.

Peter Moore talks to Christine about her love for India and its food, and the incredible journey that led to the creation of this stunning book.

What was it that drew you to India? And what is it that keeps drawing you back?

One word: Spice.

My first trip to India was in the mid 90s. I was invited to be a guest chef at a restaurant there, to put on a menu and do my thing. That was starting point of a life-long love affair. It’s a country I just got. It got under my skin. Every time I go back it’s a totally different experience. There’s always something new. Something exciting. Something different to explore.

Do you seek out new spices each time?

Not spices. I’m pretty much all over what’s available. But there are always these interesting little nuances in the way that people use spices and that changes right across the country. Person-to-person, almost. Everyone’s got their own interpretation on how they might do a dish.

Where did you get the recipes from?

A lot were from home cooks. And they are all authentic. It’s not me as a westerner or an outsider coming in and putting on an overlay of how I perceive Indian food should be or how I would change things. Each recipe is documented exactly as they were given to me.

My working title was ‘Mother India’ because it was the mothers of India who were the inspiration, the starting point for this. I set out with the goal of collecting heirloom recipes across modern India, and also look at how practices and other things have changed over time. How people cook today.