Cockney Curry

Booked for successTalking of dressing up, writer Preethi Nair, whom I bumped into at a party recently, relayed an amusing anecdote when she ...

Spicy lifestyle
From Jamie Oliver to Gordon Ramsey, male British chefs seem to wield greater power than politicians or pop stars. So it8217;s refreshing to find a rising talent, a young British Indian woman. Vicky Bhogal, 27, a second-gen Punjabi Sikh, is the author of Cooking like Mummyji: Real British Asian Recipes, designed to lift the lid on genuine Asian cuisine rather than that of curryhouses. Her latest book, out this month, takes the theme a step further. A Year of Cooking Like Mummyji Simon 038; Schuster covers a year of ceremonies and festivals including Holi, Easter, Eid, Dussehra, Diwali, Lohri and Christmas. It will certainly demystify the way British Asians and their cooking are perceived.

Bhogal recalls: 8216;8216;I recently had a conversation with a senior journalist who enquired as to where British Asians do their weekly food shopping. 8216;Are there all these secret markets that most of us don8217;t know about, where you go and haggle for vegetables?8217; she asked. I had to restrain myself from replying, 8216;Yes, and we still live in mud huts too.8217; I didn8217;t remind her that we are now living in the 21st century.8217;8217; If only you had!

Booked for success
Talking of dressing up, writer Preethi Nair, whom I bumped into at a party recently, relayed an amusing anecdote when she gave a speech about following her dream to become a published author. Says Nair, who was born in Kerala and moved to Britain as a young child: 8216;8216;Like most Indian parents, who want their children to have good jobs8212;ideally a doctor or a lawyer8212;mine did not think that you could make a living from being a writer.8217;8217; Their daughter, however, handed in her resignation as a successful management consultant, confident that during the three-month notice period she would easily gain a publishing deal for her debut manuscript, Gypsy Masala. Except, she didn8217;t.

8216;8216;I couldn8217;t tell my parents that I had quit my job with no other job to go to. So the next day, I put on my suit and pretended to go to work. I sat in the library all day. And I had to carry on pretending like this for three months!8217;8217; The pretence didn8217;t stop there. Nair also created an alter-ego called Pru Menon, who was a PR executive promoting a book called 8216;Gypsy Masala8217;. Nair now has a two-book deal with publisher HarperCollins. What was that about fact being stranger than fiction?

No cover ups
Over to Citigroup8217;s swanky office where a party was being hosted for a number of Asian women8212;and for the Prime Minister8217;s wife, who has become an honorary Asian. Or so it would seem. For not only is Cherie Blair the patron of the Asian Women of Achievement Awards but she8217;s also become a patron of burqas and jilbabs. In her other role as Cherie Booth QC, she recently presided over the court that made the final decision on Bangladeshi schoolgirl Shabina Begum8217;s challenge to her educational authorities over her right to wear a full jilbab rather than a hijab. Despite the divisiveness it has encouraged within the local Muslim community the teenage girl was supported by Hizb ut-Tahrir, Cherie was supportive. 8216;8216;People make all sorts of assumptions about Asian women, that they are meek, and have to be covered from head to toe,8217;8217; she said. At this party, however, the PM8217;s wife came in a subdued trouser suit. 8216;8216;Come May, the awards are a wonderful opportunity to dress up in great outfits,8217;8217; she said, referring to the colourful saris that she favours.

The former editor of Shoo magazine, Robina Dam contributes to the London Evening Standard and the Sunday Times Magazine.