Sophie's choice

Sophie Girot was so fascinated with traditional Tamil cuisine that she and award-winning author Viji Varadarajan have put together a cook book in French

Heat oil. Pop mustard. Squint into kadai and yawn. After all, it's hardly the Mona Lisa.

Try telling Sophie Girot that. Her eyes are closed, as she delightedly takes deep breaths of the mustard busily popping in her saucepan. “Listen,” she says, hushing the crowd, “And breathe. That smell. It's so good.” Everyone sniffs experimentally. It suddenly dawns on us. Mustard really does have an alluring fragrance.

We're at a cooking demonstration at Alliance Française to mark the launch of ‘Saveurs et Traditions du Sud de l'Inde,' a French cook book on traditional Tamil cuisine by Viji Varadarajan and Sophie Girot.

Full report here Hindu