Customer Reviews

Noon Book of Authentic Indian Cooking

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In the past year, I've researched dozens of Indian cookbooks and only found four worth buying because of their authenticity and deliciousness: Royal Indian Recipes (by The Ashhok Group of Hotels; perhaps now lamentably out-of-print), Camellia Panjabi's The Great Curries of India (lamentably her recipe for Kulfi is watered down, but the rest of the book is great), Amma's Cookbook (written by an Indian mother-chef, but incredibly high-brown in presentation and taste), and Chandra Padmanabhan's Dakshin: Vegetarian Cuisine from South India. The Noon Cookbook above was THE FIFTH BOOK I've ordered, even after I promised myself never to buy another Indian cookbook after the first four. As an overview of Indian cooking, it is not as ambitious as Ammas's, but it is the closest to Royal Indian Recipes in presenting the superlative best in Indian fine cooking. If you want an excellent Indian cookbook library consisting of fabulous recipies and color photos of authentic-tasting high-caliber Indian cuisine, starting with Noon's book wouldn't be bad. Incidentally, someone tried to hide Noon's book in the Professional Cooking section of the bookstore I visited. Perhaps the person who "hid it" in the professional cooking section of the food section thought only a serious professional or amateur chef deserved this book. In my opinion, everyone deserves this book. It's magnificent!

The Noon Book of Authentic Indian Cooking contains recipes for many well loved restaurant dishes and some new favorites. Some of the recipes are a bit time consuming but the result is worth every minute. When I prepare the recipe for Chicken Tikka Masala, friends often think it is catered rather than homemade (and I'm an excellent cook). That is the ultimate testimony to this book.


When planning Indian meals I use The Noon Book of Authentic Indian Cooking for reliable meat based dishes, and "The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking" by Yamuna Devi for vegetarian accompaniments. My only complaint about this book is that it is not longer. I would love to have even more of these delicious recipes to choose from!

That's about all nice I can say about this book. The photography is stunning. Unfortunately, the recipes, if followed to the letter, fail to produce anything that looks like the photographs. Or anything I've ever eaten in an Indian restaurant. Or anything I would want to serve for dinner. Multiple tries have resulted in bland food that is unappealing on many levels. There's got to be a better book out there.