Education

Ashok is neither a scientist nor a chef. But his new book Masala Lab breaks down the science of Indian cooking. It’s practical and lively – one chapter, Burn the Recipe, offers clever hacks. Others explain the physics that goes into a great biryani, the perfect tadka. – Hindustan Times

With chapters covering everything from zero-pressure cooking to the science of spices and more, the title offers explanations and cheat sheets galore. Tongue-in-cheek writing coupled with scientific explanations by experts make up a large portion of this book, and the result is oddly gripping. – The Hindu

Krish Ashok’s Masala Lab demystifies the science of Indian cooking in a way aspiring cooks will find delightful, accessible – Firstpost

Krish Ashok’s Masala Lab: The Science of Indian Cooking is full of such advice which, if followed, promises to not just improve the taste of the food you cook, but also make the whole process of cooking more efficient and rewarding. – Indian Express

Krish Ashok makes a great start for Indian dishes. His emphasis on cooking techniques to extract flavour works well for Indian dishes where one can’t really play around with the spice profile and create the same dish … how often can you say that you tasted a book and had great fun doing so? Masala Lab is a useful reference book too which charts out the flavour molecules and pairings of the spices we use in our dishes, the basic gravy and biryani algorithms, and for the more adventurous, the temperature and time taken to sous vide meats and vegetables – Open Magazine

Krish Ashok is not a chef but cooks daily. He is not a scientist, but he can explain science with easy-to-understand clarity. He trained to be an electronic engineer but is now a software engineer. He learnt to cook from the women in his family, who can make the perfectly fluffy idli without lecturing people on lactobacilli and pH levels. He likes the scientific method not because it offers him the ability to bully people with knowledge, but because it confidently lets him say, ‘I don’t know, let me test it for myself.’
When he is not cooking, he’s usually playing subversive music on the violin or cello. He lives in Chennai with a wife, who sagely prevents him from buying more gadgets for the kitchen, and a son, who has the flora and fauna in the neighbourhood terrorized.
You can follow him at @krishashok on Twitter at your own risk.

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