'As a chef you need to archive recipes'

After winning the second season of MasterChef India, anchoring food shows on TV and her YouTube channel, Shipra Khanna has recently launched her new book Sinfully Yours.

This is Khanna’s second book after The Spice Route, which was launched in 2013, and she says that writing a book of her recipes is essential.

 “I don’t want the recipes that I create to die with me. I think as a chef, you need to archive recipes,” says Khanna.

Her new book is a collection of her favourite desserts. It includes everything from classic desserts that her mother and grandmother taught her to the sweets that she invented in college and the mousse for which she got her first apron in MasterChef.

Along with authentic Indian desserts, she has also included fusion recipes of desserts created by her and a variety of French and Italian desserts.

“In India, desserts are an important part of the meal and our cultures. There are so many kinds of regional desserts that we have here. Personally, I finish a meal fast so that I can get to the desserts. In the book, I have incorporated some very indulgent desserts that one can bake at home,” she tells Metrolife.

According to Khanna, desserts have vastly entered kitchens at home in India. “Today, everyone fancies desserts. And I feel that baking at home is very relaxing. It gives one a different feel of cooking altogether. People are now going beyond their comfort zones to cook desserts,” she says.

As someone who is personally fond of desserts, Khanna says that many women prefer getting into baking because they have a “finer hand” for desserts. “And one might feel that by getting into baking, you might restrict yourself to just baking. But I think that even after cooking a perfect cupcake or a fondant cake, there will always be a scope of making it better,” adds Khanna, who is keen to launch more such books.