Floyd's India

Floyd's India sees old Keith Floyd doing what he does best; pottering about with portable stoves and a camera crew, cooking in the open air, chewing the fat with local cooks and generally having the time of his life, not to speak of the odd sundowner.

With characteristic candour Floyd admits that before accepting the commission he knew nothing about India, and told "them" so. No problem, "they" reply: rather like Hearst providing the war, they will supply the information; all he has to do is "pop on a plane and get cooking". So the two and a half months that the Floyd caravanserai spent traipsing about the subcontinent, from the deserts of Rajasthan in the north to the tropical lushness of Kerala at the southern tip, were full of the excitement of discovery, recorded here in the very lively "Letter from India" (complete with advice on hotels and imprecations against errant airlines) that opens Floyd's India.

The recipes that Floyd picked up on his travels are arranged thematically: spice masalas, the foundation of Indian cooking, rice, thali (the Indian equivalent of tapas, it seems), meat, fish, tandoori and so forth. Some are familiar--Rogan Josh and Lamb Dhansak, for example--others less so. All are good. Everything about this book is vivid, from the food to Floyd's inimitable and ebullient if occasionally world-weary manner. --Robin Davidson