India, Nov. 29 -- Where did the germ for this book arise - merging a cooking competition with a universe of the future?

The germ had slightly less of an insane shape when it began. I was actually recovering after a bad bout of dengue and the only thing I felt like eating was my grandmother's rasam and rice. The longer I kept subsisting on this exclusive diet, the more I kept thinking 'how is it that rasam is such a hidden gem?' Everybody knows of naan, chai, chicken tikka masala, but there are so many foods from every part of the world that are more home-style, that are more local, that nobody hears of until you visit or live there. This made me think about what makes foods catch on in the popular imagination. When cultures spread, when ...