Muthiah’s daughter rediscovers her parents’ recipes through a blog
Chronicler of Madras S Muthiah and his wife Valli were names synonymous with hospitality and storytelling. Those who have visited them got the opportunity to eat from Valli’s kitchen while listening to Muthiah’s stories about Madras. Though the duo had plans of writing a cookbook, it didn't happen. Now, their daughter Parvathi Muthiah and grandson Vignesh have launched a blog called Ayah’s Kitchen Rediscovered where they intend to perfect 51 recipes from Valli’s (Ayah) kitchen, along with a story from their family table.
“My father was proud of my mother, Valli, and her accomplishments, be it her organisational skills, her company secretarial brain or her cooking. I've never seen a man so passionate about good food and mom being an excellent cook, he kept encouraging her to write a cookbook. It was meant to be a present for his 80th birthday in 2010, but having a full-time job plus organising my dad’s editing and publishing business in addition to being a wife, mother, and grandmother, she kept procrastinating, and then she passed away in 2013. Given that I was an enthusiastic cook with a background in Hotel Management, dad then asked me to do the book. But due to a combination of factors, one of which was that she never did write down her recipes, I kept postponing as well. Some recipes were favourites with the children and so they were easy enough to write down, but some, which were our favourites growing up were lost to us because they weren’t written down. To recreate them would mean a lot of time and research, which I shied away from, given that I have a young family,” says Parvathi.
Her nephew, Vignesh (sister’s son), inherited the food genes — he’s a good baker and experiments with western food, but up to now has not ventured into Indian food. “When the pandemic hit and Vignesh was stranded at home in the Bay Area for the holidays, my brother-inlaw suggested that we should collaborate on the book, and Vignesh who was very fond of my parents, his Ayah and Aiyah, gladly agreed to be an apprentice. Muthiah (named after my dad who called him little Muthu), Vignesh’s brother, who was an amateur photographer was also roped in. Incidentally, both boys inherited the journalistic genes from my father too,” she adds.
The original plan was to publish a long-forgotten cookbook in memory of her parents. The blog was a natural evolution from there. “As we cooked, Vignesh and Muthu in the Bay Area with me on a video call from Singapore, I found myself recollecting stories from
Ayah’s kitchen and memories from our childhood. And since I was also pedantic about detailing the method through photographs, and we had a tonne of them, a blog seemed a natural fit. We still plan on publishing the book once we finish testing and perfecting all of our recipes.”
Muthiah was born in Chettinad, brought up in Sri Lanka and India and lived in America as a student. He had also travelled to England and the rest of Europe a bit while he was running T.T. Maps, the T.T.K group’s erstwhile maps and atlas making division. “His passion for food meant he took a bit of the food habits from each of these places and brought it home, and my mother, being the consummate cook learned to make all these things. So meals at home could just as well be freshly made idiyappam with Sri Lankan fish curry, his absolute favourites, or a baked cannelloni or fried rice and stir fry. A birthday party could mean freshly made from scratch spring rolls served alongside vellai paniyaram (a Chettinad specialty) and vara milagai chutney (spicy chilli chutney) and finished with a punchy fruit salad. I'm talking the 70s and 80s here, so these were not yet well-known dishes to most of Madras. We also dined out at least once a month, and when the Indian economy opened up and more cuisines came to Madras, mom and dad took great joy in trying them out. Around the mid-90s, Chettinad food became a fad and several restaurants were mushrooming in the city. My parents were often called in to consult on the menu. My mother was a pure vegetarian, she hadn’t touched meat till she got married — she stayed vegetarian all her life, but cooked some of the best non-vegetarian food I've ever eaten,” Parvathi reminisces.
When quizzed about the plans for the blog, she shares, "We intend to perfect 51 recipes from Ayah's kitchen, and post one recipe a week along with a story from our family table. Why 51 recipes you ask — well, my mother was a superstitious person and 51 is meant to be an auspicious number, so why not? We're targetting young readers who like my nephew now, and me years ago, live away from home and yearn for a taste of food like a mother's. While there are hundreds of food blogs out there, we hope that our detailed recipes, each of which we have personally tested, tips and tricks, and stories from our family table will set us apart. We've already received some favourable feedback on the blog from readers who have tried our early recipes, but we'd like to see more of them try the recipes and post about their experiences. Also, Ayah's Kitchen Rediscovered — the book is on the cards. We also hope to offer online lessons at some point in time."
While there are hundreds of food blogs out there, we hope that our detailed recipes, each of which we have personally tested, tips and tricks, and stories from our family table will set us apart
— Parvathi Muthiah