If the Gourmand Best Vegetarian Cook Book Award is to be believed, Tarla Dalal has competition. Asha Khatau is out with her brand new book that tells you how to whip up international dishes without maas-machhi-anda

Indian women love feeding their families. Food is the primary mode of displaying affection here. In Goodness Gracious Me, BBC's hysterical parody of Indian culture, the ever-prudent Mrs Bedi (a character purportedly inspired by actor Nina Wadia's mother) never gave in to her family's wasteful dining-out-demands. And why would she? After all, as she infallibly pointed out, whether her children craved pizza or her husband wanted chocolate cake, "I can make it at home for nothing. All I need is one small aubergine."

An aubergine may not be the answer to one's genuine desire to widen culinary horizons, but, if that is indeed your ambition, Asha Khatau's new book would certainly come handy. With dishes from America, Italy, Mexico, Europe, Southeast Asia and the Mediterranean, Exciting Vegetarian Cuisines of the World includes some of Khatau's tried-and-tested recipes.

The homemaker and mother-of-three is excited that it's up for the Gourmand International Award for Best Vegetarian Cook Book, a competition that includes over 6,000 books from 150 countries.

Excerpts from an interview:

How did you start experimenting with foreign cuisines?
In our family, there has been a longstanding tradition of having a non-Indian meal for dinner. So, when I got married, this prompted me to try my hand at various cuisines and my in-laws encouraged my culinary experiments. I prefer oriental dishes or Mexican food, but the rest of the family loves European cuisine.u00a0