Chef Book

Kirpal Singh is travelling on the slow train to Kashmir. As India passes by the window in a stream of tiny lights glistening fields and huddled noisy towns he reflects on his destination which is also his past: a military camp to which he has not returned for fourteen years...Kirpal Kip to his friends is timorous and barely twenty when he arrives for the first time at General Kumar's camp nestled in the shadow of the mighty Siachen Glacier that claimed his father's life. He is placed under the supervision of Chef Kishen a fiery anarchic mentor with long earlobes and a caustic tongue who guides Kip towards the heady spheres of food and women. 'The smell of a woman is a thousand times better than cooking the most sumptuous dinner kid ' he muses over an evening beer. Kip is embarrassed - he has never slept with a woman though a loose-limbed nurse in the local hospital has caught his eye. In Srinagar Kashmir a contradictory place of erratic violence extremes of temperature and high-altitude privilege Kip learns to prepare indulgent Kashmiri dishes such as Mughlai mutton and slow-cooked Nahari as well as delicacies from Florence Madrid Athens and Tokyo.Months pass and though he is Sikh Kip feels secure in his allegiance to India the right side of this interminable conflict. Then one muggy day a Pakistani 'terrorist' with long flowing hair is swept up on the banks of the river and changes everything. Mesmeric mournful and intensely lyrical Chef is a brave and compassionate debut about hope love and memory set against the devastatingly beautiful war-scarred backdrop of occupied Kashmir.