A fortnight ago, Chef Prateek Sadhu, from Masque, Mahalaxmi, invited his first mentor, his mother, Tejalahori, into his kitchen to cook a special meal for his guests. Prateek, who borrows liberally from his mother's recipes, says over the phone, "This dinner was a tribute to her cooking, as my love of food primarily comes from her." Tejalahori had cooked a traditional Kashmiri meal, with crowd favourites such as dum aloo, rajma, guchiya and paneer, and Prateek's favourites such as rogan josh, yakhni and fish.

"She makes rogan josh with oil and yoghurt, no water," he says. "It's surreal." For the diners, the idea seemed to be: if you like Prateek's rogan josh, wait till you try his mother's. You can draw a line from what the best chefs cook today with what their mums spoon-fed them 30 years ago. Palates, like memories, stick. So, if pastry chef Husna Jumani's creations at The Clearing House, Fort, seem out of the box (chocolate ginger soil, moringa truffle), it's probably because her mum, Hadiya's kitchen staples are actually brilliant innovations.