Tarla Dalal, India’s first celebrity masterchef passes away at 77

One of India’s well known celebrity chef and food writer, Tarla Dalal has passed away on Nov 07th. She was 77 and died due to heart attack in Mumbai.

Ms Dalal taught making fluffy bhaturas and soft idlis in their kitchens. She was known for making the most intricate dishes with easy-to-follow recipes.

Over 3 million copies of Tarla’s books have sold and she had introduced new aromas and new flavours in vegetarian dishes.

She had picked cook books when she went abroad and found an easy way to adapt the same with vegetarian recipes.

Tarla Dalal, India’s first master chef had been into culinary from 40 years and has written more than 100 cook books.

She hosted cooking classes at her home in1966 which had students waiting in lines.’The Pleasures of Vegetarian Cooking’,

Dalal’s first cookbook was published in 1974. She had been a celebrity even before television came to India. She had created a mind-boggling 17,000 recipes to her credit.

Her website, Tarladalal.com, one of the largest food websites in Asia hosted many of her recipes. She had started cooking on television show “Cook It Up With Tarla Dalal” long before Nigella Lawson or Sanjeev Kapoor.

She was awarded the Padma Shri in 2007. Popular masterchef Sanjeev Kapoor, said that Tarla Dalal popularised the art of cooking in India and it is a terrible loss.