India's recipe queen Tarla Dalal passes away

Well-known cooking expert, Tarla Dalal who made her mark by teaching India to cook breathed her last today. Dalal was 77-years-old. [caption id=“attachment_1214373” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Image from Dalal’s Facebook page[/caption] Author of over 100 cookbooks including The Pleasures of Vegetarian Cooking (1974) and Delicious Diabetic Recipes: Low Calorie Cooking: Total Health Series, Dalal has been a household name in most middle class homes where women have learnt to make many new dishes by watching the Sony show Cook It Up With Tarla Dalal.  Dalal although well-versed in all sort of cuisine is mostly known for her Gujarati dishes. Dalal became a trusted brand herself and ran India’s largest food website www.tarladalal.com.  Not only that, Dalal also came out with her own brand of ready-to-cook mixes, known as Tarla Dalal mixes which was later acquired by International Bestfoods Ltd (IBL). She also ran a bi-monthly magazine — Cooking & More. Dalal had conducted several cooking workshops across India and is a noted Indian food writer. She was awarded the Padma Shree by government of India in 2007. According to news reports, Dalal passed away at around 7am after suffering a heart attack. She is survived by three children. Her husband passed away in 2005. A message on her official Facebook page read, “We would like to thank all of you for your support and affection through the years of Mrs. Tarla Dalal’s career. She is no more with us as she expired in the early hours of this morning. We thank her for all the happiness that her talent has given to us and our families”