2. London

Madhur Jaffrey goes to London in 1965, winning a scholarship to RADA.

She loves acting but is homesick, and very underwhelmed by pallid English food. She starts cooking at her digs, following her mother’s hand written recipes.

Madhur Jaffrey is a well-known writer and performer, whose work was seminal in introducing Indian and Asian cooking to the USA and UK.

Her first cookbook, An Invitation to Indian Cooking, was an instant hit, in 1973.

By then, Ms Jaffrey was already a Broadway name, living in New York. The Jaffreys' dinner parties were hugely popular, in part because of Madhur’s wonderful cooking, and attended by many celebrities, such as Merchant and Ivory. She made her name from her family recipes, sent by her mother in letters from home, and their enthusiastic reception culminated in An Invitation to Indian Cooking.

Dramatised by Anjum Malik.

Madhur Jaffrey …… Archie Panjabi
Ismail Merchant …… Raj Ghatak
Kashmiran Rani (Madhur’s mother) …… Balvinder Sopal
Fiona Jones/Bianche Go …… Rina Mahoney

Producer: Polly Thomas.

A Somethin’ Else production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in February 2021.