Dining with the Maharajas: Thousand Years of Culinary Tradition Hardcover – January 11, 2013

Wow .. the presentation of this book is as royal as the contents. Was way beyond my expectations, was well worth the price. I highly recommend, great for both history buffs and food connoisseurs. The book is so beautiful, a work of art, for the coffee table and not the kitchen table, so it comes with a accompanying paperback kitchen copy of recipes. A perfect gift to give and/or to keep.

This book is both exotic, romantic and an incredible journey into India's historic culinary traditions. The photographs of the royal families of India are a treasure.. Beautifully shot and written very well.. this book is a rare treat.. both cookbook and coffee table book rolled into one.. along with a Kitchen copy of the recipes. how can one go wrong.. and the purple velvet cover makes it a joy to touch.. Kudos to the photographer and writer!

Brilliant, stunning, inspiring. This is a book for the weekend you want to cook a big feast with gorgeous food for friends. Nothing is dumbed down, so it's a serious cook's book. Love it.

Beautifully produced -- a keepsake.

The first impression when you open the cardboard box that houses the book is that it is beautiful. Its purple colour (for us commoners) setting is very elegant. And the immediate thought that comes to mind before even opening the book is how are you ever going to use this in the kitchen?It is heavy, cloth bound and way too expensive to put up in a kitchen shelf. Kept figuring this out while opening the package. Once inside there's your solution. A cool "Kitchen Copy" - a paperback copy of all the recipes in the coffee-table book. Good. Major problem solved.Open the book and the beautiful artwork immediately hits you. Exquisite. From the beginning you start walking into history. A historical treat with stories, anecdotes, those juicy "once upon a time such and such happened" incidences and nuggets of quirky historical tales turned fables. Catches you on from the beginning if you dig all things royal like me. It puts life into books like these (Maharaja of Sailana please take note. A little stuff like these makes books come alive). Tales of Maharaja Bhupinder Singh and his motorcade of 24 Rolls Royce's once used for garbage disposal and how the poor Maharaja died of overeating are just what makes this book special. The book is littered with tales like these.Beyond the historical nuggets, this book's strongest point undoubtedly is its visuals. Unprecedented access to royal families and the various pictures - both past and contemporary recreate the past. You can visualize in your mind the fine lives of these kings and their ancestors. Something history books in school never seemed to be able to! And the present. Photos of Captain Amarinder Singh, Maharaja of Patiala himself cooking (Page 150) are inexplicably priceless!The pictures are the life of this book. Showing royal families together in their homes or sitting around gives an outsider a small window to peek into their lives. Flip to Page 29. The royal family of Hyderabad is enjoying their afternoon tea.Very impressed with the breadth of the coverage. Typically when we think of royalty and cuisine we think of the Mughals, the Awadh rulers and the Rajputs as culinary front-runners. Was very intrigued to look into the lives of the Nawabs of Mahmudabad, Rampur and Tripura of all places (what's in Tripura was what I was thinking first). But then you realise that each of these distinct royalties would have perfected their own styles. Udaipur for instance, has no non-vegetarian delight put up in the book. A different fare. Tamatar Jholwala and Matar Latpatta seems doable for non-veggie like me.What's missing is mention of more royal families from down south - with the exception of Mysore. Nearly all the Maharajas covered come from the Northern, Central and the Gangetic belt and yes the one from Tripura. Addition of more South Indian royal families about which we know so little of would have made this book complete.On to the recipes now. All recipes seem first class. There are known names and unknown ones. A number of them you would know if you have followed royal or authentic local cuisines. Like Patthar Gosht or Haleem from Hyderabad. Laal Maas from Jodhpur or Shabdegh from Mahmudabad (though Shabdeg has both Kashmiri and Awadhi influences). I wish Patiala had more recipes. Always have a soft spot for their rich food, especially the non-veg variety. Yum. Got to try Seb ki kheer from Mahmudabad. Looks enticing.One point that did strike me is that a number of the recipes seem to have been customised to today's conveniences. There are some elaborate recipes but on average not many will take half a day to prepare. That's good for city busybee's.All in all, this is a coffee-table book about the lives and the culinary legacy of the Maharajas. If history excites you, if the bygone eras bring certain nostalgia then this book will call out to you. In front of the dazzling visuals, you tend to forget this is also a collection of royal recipes which are from the best sources you'll ever get. But this book is first and foremost a trip down Indian royalty's culinary history.

Wonderful

Excellent purple cover. Fit for a maharaja's book collection.