Madhur Jaffrey is the leading authority on Indian food in the West.

Madhur Jaffrey is the leading authority on Indian food in the West. Having written more than 30 cookbooks, Madhur's expertise is undeniable. Here, you get to see how Madhur got to 30 cookbooks and what you'll gain from that expertise.
MADHUR JAFFREY: Eating is such an important part of our lives. It really tells you who you are. What you eat, how you eat it, what your culinary traditions are tells me a lot about the people of that country.

When I was growing up, I always loved food. And what I perhaps didn't know is that I had a very good palate. Because everything that I was eating as a child, I somehow recorded and remembered. Even when I was born and I was given a lick of honey by my grandmother, since that time, I guess, I have been recording everything I tasted.

Certainly, till the age of 20, there were no signs of me being a great cook or anything like that. I was just like most other children, a bit of a tomboy.

As I was growing up, I sort of started acting in plays. And people saw me. And they'd say, you should go to England, and you should study acting. And at RADA, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, that is where things began to change for me.

And what happened was that I missed Indian food. That wonderful food that was cooked in a house on a daily basis suddenly vanished. So I started writing letters to my mother and saying, please, please, I can't cook. Teach me how to cook. So she sent me little snippets in air letters.

So she wrote three-line recipes-- take this, take that, brown it a little bit, put a little water, cover it, and let it cook. But see, the whole thing was that those tastes were in my head. They were already there, the flavors. I was able to recreate a lot of the dishes that I used to get at home. And I found that discovery absolutely wonderful.

And so I started on this career, which, alongside my acting career, was something that just happened. And the two went along, hand in hand, and have gone along in my life, hand in hand, ever since.

I'm going to put in some fresh ginger. Now, ginger's something you may not be too familiar with.

Oh, you are not a sweet person. I'm a very sweet person.

- Our guest today, cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey.

WOMAN: The fangirl in me is flipping out.

- Mm.

- How is it?

- Absolutely perfect.

- Good.

- Mix it all up, and let it marinate overnight. Now I'm ready to start cooking.

I'm Madhur Jaffrey, and this is my MasterClass. So India is a vast country. It's the size of Europe. But India was split. So we have, now, India in the center, Bangladesh on the east, Pakistan on the West. But they were all one country at one time. So we share a common South Asian cuisine.

So what distinguishes this food? I'm going to really explain to you about what makes an Indian meal. I'm going to show you how to make Indian breads, how to make rice in the best way. There are vegetables. So I'll show you how to cook a lot of the vegetables....