When I ask this question in my cookery classes, people often laugh first — and then admit their worries. I recognise those fears, because although I grew up with Indian food, I didn’t grow up with written recipes or exact rules either.
I grew up in Kenya, in a household where cooking was learned by watching, helping, and tasting, never by measuring. The terms everyone used were āsre (આસરે), lagbhag (લગભગ) and andāje (અંદાજે), all ways of saying approximately, never an exact figure.
Those words weren’t just measurements; they were a way of cooking. Food was adjusted as it cooked, tasted as it went along, and shaped by experience rather than precision.
(And yes — watch out for those funny aprons sold with these “measurements”; our mums still cook this way!)
Once I learned to cook for myself, I naturally gravitated towards American cup measurements. They felt familiar, a guide rather than a rule. Using cups allowed me to cook the way I had learned: by feel, by taste, and by adjusting as I go.
For me, it wasn’t a change at all. It was simply another way of cooking with confidence.
- The most common reason I hear about cooking Indian food is that there are too many spices. I hear this all the time.
I like to tell them a bit about my cooking journey. Growing up, we didn’t have shelves lined with dozens of jars. We had a small selection of spices, bought loose, often wrapped in paper. My mother used the same spices again and again -salt, chili powder, cumin, and coriander mixture called dhana jiru, turmeric, mustard seeds and cumin seeds. These spices were in every ones spice box but each dish tasted different.
I learned early that it’s not the number of spices that matters, but when and how you use them. That understanding came from years of watching food cook slowly on the stove, not from complicated recipes. And this is what I am trying to pass on when teaching Indian cooking.
- Another reason everyone gives is that they will get the quantities wrong
This fear always makes me smile. In our kitchen, nobody ever said “half a teaspoon”. Cooking was done with fingers, pinches, and instinct. If something tasted flat, another pinch went in. If it was too strong, we added a little water or yogurt and carried on. In my lessons, I encourage students to taste their food and adjust spices as needed. Mistakes are not failures — they are all a part of learning.
- The best excuse they have is that it won’t taste like the restaurant
I like to let them know that restaurant food wasn’t something we had often growing up. Even now, we don’t often cook restaurant style food. We do this sometimes as a treat or when we have guests. Most days we eat homemade food such as simple curries, dals, rice and chapatis all cooked with care. Most of the vegetables and fruit we use are seasonal ones. Our aim is never to impress but to feed the family and make food stretch.
Unfortunately, we were never taught the lovely plating we see in today’s restaurants and cookery shows.
I always tell my class that Indian home cooking doesn’t taste like a restaurant. We don’t create restaurant style dishes everyday. Our everyday dishes are healthy and nourishing using whatever ingredients are available. And that’s what I like to teach too.
- My favorite one is their fear of burning the spices
Yes, I’ve burnt spices too. I remember being told off gently for turning the heat too high when tempering with mustard or cumin seeds. That smell stays with you, and you don’t forget it ever. But no one panicked. The pan was washed, the spices were added again, and cooking continued. I like to explain that if their spices burn at the tempering (Often called tadka or vaghar), then they should start again as it ruins the taste of the curry or dall. But burning spices aren’t a disaster. This teaches you to control your heat and not rush the cooking. There are too many Indian cookery shows where the chef shows too many ingredients and starts with cooking the spices with garlic and onions at high heat. This type of cooking only comes with experience.
- Some people think that Indian food cooking is too complicated and that they didn’t grow up with Indian food.
Indian food cooking is often presented as elaborate and time-consuming. But everyday food is not difficult. It’s simple using seasonal vegetables and spices from the masala dabba. The complexity has come now as Indian food is packaged as something exotic. At home, its just simple food.
Indian cooking has always travelled. Families moved, ingredients changed, and recipes adapted. What stayed constant was the knowledge being passed on.
Indian food itself is incredibly diverse — shaped by region, climate, religion, and family tradition. There has never been just one way to cook “Indian food”.
Growing up in Kenya, our Indian food was already different from food cooked in India — and that’s exactly how it should be. Now, living in the UK, it has evolved once again.
And that diversity, that constant evolution, is what makes Indian cooking so special.
- When I look back and when I listen to my students, I realise their real fear isn’t the spices or the technique, but the fear of getting it wrong.
Indian cooking was never meant to be perfect. It was meant to be learned slowly, through repetition, observation, and trust in your senses.
That’s what I try to pass on; not just recipes, but confidence.
- Some people feel intimidated by Indian cooking, and they are not alone.
My cookery classes are about slowing down, asking questions, and understanding why we do things, just like I learned growing up. Once the fear goes, the joy follows.
The following is a photograph sent to me by one of my cookery students after his first Indian cookery lesson yesterday. We made simple mixed veg curry and raita using my everyday spices. He has managed to serve it in a great way.
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