I tasted an amalgamation of cultures through
food. Much of what I learned about Indian and
Western cooking came from spending time with
my maternal grandmother and my parents in
their kitchens. They based many of their recipes
on a template of aromas and tastes, which they
adjusted to bring out the flavors of the main
ingredients in a dish. For example, for most meat
dishes, they would start with chopped onions
and sauté them until translucent. Then they
would add a mixture of freshly ground ginger
and garlic and dried chiles for heat, a pinch of
turmeric and Kashmiri chile powder for color,
and some vinegar, yogurt, or lime juice at the
end to round off the flavor with their acidity.
I noticed these simple habits when I was a kid,
and they have helped me in my adult life to
become a better cook.
Eventually, I immigrated to America. Here I
observed that while there were obvious differ-
ences between Indian and Western cooking,
there were also strong similarities. For curries,stews, and soups, I first sautéed aromatics in fat,
just as Westerners do, and then added spices.
And like Westerners, I added fresh herbs at the
end as a finishing touch, sometimes with a
squeeze of fresh lemon or lime juice.
But Indian cooks approach seasoning differ-
ently—they tend to rely on contrasting flavors,
while Westerners pair similar tastes. I started
to play with ingredients that were new to me
and transformed them with the techniques I’d
learned in India. If I made a fresh tomato salad,Nik Sharma in his
home kitchen in
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