This book is a culmination of all my food experiences. Anecdotes from aaji and aai, tips from travels and farmer market visits across the world, Chef’s Kapoor’s pearls of wisdom, knowledge from the internet and culinary books, plus my own intuition and years of permutations and combinations in the kitchen! Besides traditional Maharashtrian recipes, I also showcased the best of my kitchen experiments with recipes from other parts of the country and globe. Through the process of compiling, testing and tasting the recipes, jotting down the anecdotes and smiling like a proud parent as my creations got clicked for the book - I revisited all my favourite sights, smells and sounds in my happy place, my kitchen! Now I am giving you an all-access pass into my kitchen and I promise, as you try every recipe you too will feel the love, elation and absolute satisfaction that I have felt. I hope you feel the magic of local ingredients like alsandes and aluche phatphate, the spice hit in coconutty fish curries, the inciting aromas of a majestic dum biryani and of course the comfort in each morsel of varan-bhaat. I hope you enjoy every page of 'My Romance with Food' as much as I enjoyed putting it together for you! — Roopa Nabar