There is a change in the manner in which cookbooks are being written now. Earlier, they were mere recipes. The transformation that has come about is that a related history about the dish, or about the concerned region, from where the recipes have been chosen are now added. Of late, there has been an upsurge of recipe books of various kinds. If there have been books from royal households, there have also been books from the kitchen of popular film stars and other famous personalities. Cookbooks from chefs have an unending list. So, when you lay your hand on yet another similar book, the first reaction is to see how different it is from the others available. On this parameter, The Lucknow Cookbook is fascinating as the authors, the mother daughter duo—Chand Sur and Sunita Kohli, have chosen dishes which have travelled with them from different parts of the world. Chand Sur, with her husband, Inder Sur, came from Lahore to settle in Lucknow after the Partition.
She was from Balochistan, though her family was originally from Multan but had settled in Quetta. From the young age of eight, she had come to Mussoorie to study in the Wynberg Allen boarding school (as her father was in the Indian Railways, and always on the move). Due to this travel, and many others, there are recipes which have also travelled from different parts of the world, and the history of these dishes are briefly mentioned. For instance, the different recipes trace the interesting history as the ‘dahi ka shorba’, the yogurt soup has its roots in Istanbul, the use of pomegranates and dried fruit in Lucknow has come from Afghanistan, and the original kebabs have come from Persia.