In January 2022, the 88-year-old Madhur Jaffrey was honoured with the Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian award. She was conferred with the title ‘First Lady of Global Indian Cuisine’ while she’s also an actor, a travel and food writer, and a tele personality/rcelebrity. Madhur Jaffrey's recipes have been trending over the internet and she’s been inspiring many home cooks to learn more about the art of cooking and turning food enthusiasts into professional chefs. According to Elle Canada, Madhur Jaffrey is a global favourite Indian cooking teacher. Let’s know more about this classy, renowned, accomplished Indian cooking maestro.
Madhur Jaffrey’s Early Life
Madhur Jaffrey was born on 13th August 1933 in Delhi’s Civil Lines, and she was the fifth of six children to her parents. Growing up during the British Raj was quite a journey for Madhur Jaffrey, witnessing India’s partition and the resultant violence. When Madhur Jaffrey was a young girl, she and her family would indulge in the delicious Mughlai cuisine quite often. After the partition, when refugees from Punjab began settling in Delhi, she was introduced to the lovely Punjabi food we all infamously know today and she fell in love with the cuisine’s simplicity.
Madhur Jaffrey’s Education Background
Madhur Jaffrey studied at Delhi University’s Miranda House. She was an active participant in theatre and performing arts during her college years. It was during this time that she joined All India Radio (AIR) where she hosted a western music programme. Madhur Jaffrey then flew to London to pursue her acting career and was enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). But from acting to being a chef has been an exquisite rollercoaster for Madhur Jaffrey. While she was living in London for her acting profession, Madhur Jaffrey wasn’t impressed by the food there, which she vocalised in many of her interviews. That’s when she realised she’d try cooking for herself and wrote to her mother to share some easy and quick recipes for home-cooked meals that she was used to eating in her childhood. That’s how she first tried her hand at the humble recipe of jeera-aloo.
Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cooking Book: ‘An Invitation to Indian Cooking’
From a simple home-cooked meal, Madhur Jaffrey found her passion for cooking and eventually took it up as her focus. That inspired her to write her debut cookbook called ‘An Invitation to Indian Cooking’ in 1973. With this flavourful cookbook, Madhur Jaffrey introduced the true essence of Indian Cuisine to the Western World. The response was so good and kept growing over the years that in 2006 the popular ‘Madhur Jaffrey Indian Cooking Book’ was inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s Cookbook Hall of Fame. Many respected Indian chefs proudly congratulated her through social media posts on this momentous achievement.
Madhur Jaffrey’s Contribution to Bringing Indian Cuisine to the World Map
Her debut cookbook was the first of many interesting and easy-to-make cooking recipes that she gave to the world. ‘An Invitation to Indian Cooking’ introduced Indian Cooking first to America that then won a James Beard Award. Amongst plenty of other Indian cooking books, Madhur Jaffrey’s 30th cookbook - Instantly Indian Cookbook: Modern and Classic Recipes for the Instant Pot, was released in 2019. This cookbook introduces classic but simple recipes that could be tried in an American household using the instant pot, which went super hit during the lockdown. Not just her Indian Cooking books, but her Indian cooking show on BBC and her teaching classes at the James Beard School of Cooking is what contributed to the popularity of Indian cuisine globally. It was then that people in America and worldwide began finding their love for some Indian spice!
Madhur Jaffrey’s Professional Life
Madhur Jaffrey as we all know her is a TV celebrity chef and an actress. She’s given privileged access to plenty of cookbook classics to many budding chefs and home chefs that want to learn some easy tips and tricks of master cooking. She currently lives in New York with her children and second husband, violinist Sanford Allen. She moved to India with her family into a 14th-floor apartment in a Greenwich Village co-op in 1969. To provide better for her children, she ventured into freelance writing for food and travel magazines, diving into diverse subjects like painting, music, dance, sculpture, and architecture. However, her acting career was just as colourful as the Indian platter. She was the instrument that brought together James Ivory and Ismail Merchant to create and direct movies together. She acted in many Merchant Ivory films such as The Perfect Murder (1988), Heat and Dust (1983), Autobiography of a Princess (1976), The Guru (1969).
Madhur Jaffrey’s Life in Cinema & TV
Madhur Jaffrey has starred in multiple films, such as Six Degrees of Separation (1993), Flawless (1999), Vanya on 42nd Street (1994), and Prime (2005). She even produced and starred in ABCD (1999). She even starred in an Indian film called Sagar where she played the character Kamladevi who was Rishi Kapoor’s grandmother in the film. In 1999, she appeared in the movie Chutney Popcorn with her daughter Sakina Jaffrey. In 2012, she played the role of a doctor in the movie A Late Quartet, where she diagnoses Christopher Walken’s character with Parkinson’s disease. In 2019, in an episode of the DC Universe series called Doom Patrol, she even appeared as the elderly version of the Indian superheroine character Celsius, in her civilian identity Arani Desai.
During the years she was acting in films, she also actively participated in theatre. She was always interested in theatre acts and to people’s awe, Madhur Jaffrey was phenomenal in many plays that were a hit back then. In 1962, she appeared in a play by Rolf Forsberg called A Tenth of an Inch Makes the Difference. In 2004, she appeared on Broadway in the play Bombay Dreams where she was the main character’s grandmother, Shanti. In 2005, she was seen in India Awakening, directed by Anne Marie Cummings.
Madhur Jaffrey recently appeared in one of the episodes of the Sex and the City spinoff called And Just Like That, where she played an Indian-American Realtor’s character called Sarita Choudhury’s screen mother.
Madhur Jaffrey’s Awards and Accolades
She was beloved by many not just in her acting career, but also in the inspirational phase of her cooking shows, cooking classes, cookbooks, travel and food content magazines and more. During her professional years, she was awarded and appreciated with many prestigious awards and accolades. This list shows the mega awards she’s received:
- Best Actress in 1965 for her performance in Shakespeare Wallah at the Berlin International Film Festival
- In 1993, Taraknath Das Foundation Award was presented to Madhur Jaffrey by the Taraknath Das Foundation of the Southern Asian Institute of Columbia University
- In 2000, Muse Award by New York Women in Films and Television
- In 1995, James Beard Foundation named her to ‘Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America’
- Awarded in October 2004 with the Honorary CBE in recognition of her services to cultural relations between India, the United Kingdom, and the USA through her popularity and achievements in Cookery, Television, and Film
- 33rd Filmfare Awards: Nominated as Best Supporting Actress for the movie Sagar
- In 2022, Madhur Jaffrey was proudly awarded the Padma Bhushan from the Government of India, the third-highest civilian award in the country.
Conclusion
Popularly known as the actress who can cook, Madhur Jaffrey is the nation’s gem whose contributions forever remain evergreen for all those who have used her cookbooks to cook some delicious and quick meals at home. Her easy-to-understand books in industries other than cooking like travel, music, and architecture have also been an interesting point for many visualisers. A passionate woman, actress, chef, cookery teacher, mother, wife, and India’s Padma Bhushan awardee is someone that inspires one and all to follow your passion and dreams even if it’s a hairpin curve from what you’re currently doing in life. Give a try to one of her famous cookbooks and we’re sure you’d be moved to try on the simplest yet tasty Madhur Jaffrey Indian cooking recipe you’d find in there!
FAQs
What is Madhur Jaffrey doing now?
She is currently living in Manhattan and has a home in New York. With the success of her cookbooks and TV cook shows, Madhur Jaffrey commenced a line of mass-marketed cooking sauces.
Who are Madhur Jaffrey’s children?
Madhur Jaffrey has 3 daughters, Sakina Jaffery, Meera Jaffrey and Zia Jaffrey.