Speaker 1: I think like you, I.
Speaker 2: Really pushed myself, and I also I think I should stop.
Speaker 2: You know, you're not never going to please anybody.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're never going to please anybody.
Speaker 4: That's so funny as opposed to you're never going to
Speaker 4: please everybody.
Speaker 3: You're never going to please anybody.
Speaker 4: My dad used to say that because you know, the
Speaker 4: phrase is I can't have everything, and my.
Speaker 3: Dad used to go, oh, well you can't have anything.
Speaker 2: I like that.
Speaker 5: Hello, I'm Mini driver. I've always loved Preust's questionnaire. It
Speaker 5: was originally in nineteenth century parlor game where players would
Speaker 5: ask each other thirty five questions aimed at revealing.
Speaker 3: The other player's true nature.
Speaker 5: In asking different people the same set of questions, you
Speaker 5: can make observations about which truths appear to be universal.
Speaker 3: And it made me.
Speaker 5: Wonder, what if these questions were just a jumping off point,
Speaker 5: what greater depths would be revealed if I asked these
Speaker 5: questions as conversation starters. So I adapted Pru's questionnaire and
Speaker 5: I wrote my own seven questions that I personally think
Speaker 5: are pertinent to a person's story. They are when and
Speaker 5: where were you happiest? What is the quality you like
Speaker 5: least about yourself. What relationship, real or fictionalized, defines love
Speaker 5: for you? What question would you most like answered, What person, place,
Speaker 5: or experience has shaped you the most? What would be
Speaker 5: your last meal? And can you tell me something in
Speaker 5: your life that's grown out of a personal disaster? And
Speaker 5: I've gathered a group of really remarkable people, ones that
Speaker 5: I am honored and humbled to have had the chance
Speaker 5: to engage with. You may not hear their answers to
Speaker 5: all seven of these questions. We've whittled it down to
Speaker 5: which questions felt closest to their experience or the most surprising,
Speaker 5: or created the most fertile ground to connect.
Speaker 6: My guest today is the chef, author, and broadcaster Romy Gill,
Speaker 6: a truly wonderful, self made powerhouse whose food is well.
Speaker 6: Last time I ate at one of her pop up restaurants,
Speaker 6: it was an extremely quiet experience because nearly everyone in
Speaker 6: the restaurant was quite literally in a silent reverie over
Speaker 6: her food. Her cookbooks are warm and insightful, and the
Speaker 6: newest of which is out this September and is entitled
Speaker 6: Romy Girls India.
Speaker 3: Where and When were you Happiest?
Speaker 2: So I'm going to take you back to my childhood,
Speaker 2: those long train journeys. If anybody hasn't experienced that, children's
Speaker 2: born in nineteen seventies, eighties and early nineties, Indian families
Speaker 2: will understand what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: In India is such a big.
Speaker 2: Country and those long train journeys were something so beautiful,
Speaker 2: so amazing that we would embark on this journey. My
Speaker 2: dad worked in a steel plant in West Bengal, but
Speaker 2: my parents are both.
Speaker 1: From north in Deer and we would take this.
Speaker 3: Long journey from Bengal to the Punjab.
Speaker 2: Jah, which is a nor then investment goal is to
Speaker 2: East India. So I think that journey was more than
Speaker 2: twenty four hours on a train on the train, and
Speaker 2: you know, and Dad would make this beautiful picnic that
Speaker 2: needed to be last the whole more than twenty four hours,
Speaker 2: and we would look in the uniqueness of that. I
Speaker 2: think it's rare now because everybody flies so quickly from
Speaker 2: one destination to another, and that train going from different
Speaker 2: regions of different state, and then the trains would stop
Speaker 2: and my dad and mom hagging and bartering for mangoes.
Speaker 2: You know, if it's like one hundred of fees, give
Speaker 2: it for sixty rupees or something like that to kill it.
Speaker 1: And all those food.
Speaker 2: From different regions or states, you would only eat when
Speaker 2: you're going on that journey, because you have to understand
Speaker 2: it's so diverse. We are such a diverse country. We
Speaker 2: speak different languages, a food is different, and as a child,
Speaker 2: that was for me something I don't know. I was
Speaker 2: so eager to wait for those delicacies, to eat those food.
Speaker 4: So as you go into each region, you'd get a difference,
Speaker 4: so you'd know we're going into mango region. Now that's
Speaker 4: what we're going to be looking forward to. And then
Speaker 4: that's so lovely.
Speaker 2: And strain would stop, and then we would need Like
Speaker 2: some places there was a katori or body, which is
Speaker 2: like a deep fried bread with potato curry, which is
Speaker 2: so delicious, so simple, and you know, just digging that
Speaker 2: bread in soaking aludum, we would call it just heavenly.
Speaker 2: As a child, those things were so important. You know,
Speaker 2: you understand we didn't have that technology. We are brought
Speaker 2: up in a very different environment, in a very sheltered environment.
Speaker 2: You know, grew up in a steel plant. So I
Speaker 2: think for us, especially for me, those strange journeys, I
Speaker 2: think is my happiest place.
Speaker 1: Still.
Speaker 2: It still gives me joy when I talk about it.
Speaker 2: It's just it reminds me how I would meet people
Speaker 2: from different states going on that journey. You make friendships,
Speaker 2: and my system met her husband on the train. You
Speaker 2: fell in love and got married.
Speaker 4: No, Oh, my gosh, that's so incredibly romantic. That's amazing.
Speaker 4: Would food become I mean, I'm assuming it would. The
Speaker 4: different regions and the different times, and the different things
Speaker 4: that you would eat, I'm sure became markers of time
Speaker 4: on a very long train journey. What you were going
Speaker 4: to eat next would be then sort of next focus.
Speaker 3: I mean, eating is an excellent way.
Speaker 1: To excitement, isn't it.
Speaker 2: And then there would be little street vendors coming with chai,
Speaker 2: which is Indian tea, or child moor, which is like
Speaker 2: an Indian snack of things like that. They would get
Speaker 2: on the train and sell I mean even at mango
Speaker 2: or raw mango with little chili flakes and black salt,
Speaker 2: and you bite into that sourness and sweetness and chile.
Speaker 2: I mean, I just cannot tell you how magical the food.
Speaker 2: And I'm so.
Speaker 1: Happy that I I'm a chef, and I.
Speaker 2: Have those wonderful memories that I can create those dishes
Speaker 2: as well. I think that will always be my safest
Speaker 2: place and a happy place.
Speaker 3: Oh how lovely.
Speaker 4: What relationship, real or fictionalized, defines love for you?
Speaker 2: I don't know if you've seen or heard a film
Speaker 2: called Lunchbox. It's a beautiful, beautiful movie. It came out
Speaker 2: in twenty thirteen. It tells a story of a mistaken
Speaker 2: lunch box delivery in Mumbai, where it leads to an unexpected,
Speaker 2: beautiful friendship between a loona and a housewife who's very neglected,
Speaker 2: and they started exchanging notes in the lunch box. And
Speaker 2: that relationship, I can't tell you, gives me goosebumps because
Speaker 2: it's such a beautiful movie the way it's made, Because
Speaker 2: if you see Bollivard movies, there are movies dancing around
Speaker 2: the trees and many other things. But we have very
Speaker 2: very good films as well, and they develop, I would say,
Speaker 2: a deep emotional connection despite not ever meeting face to face.
Speaker 2: They do decide to meet, and then circumstances happen and
Speaker 2: they don't meet, and they leave you in a kind
Speaker 2: of a situation.
Speaker 1: You can make up your mind and think.
Speaker 2: That they might meet it, or they might not meet
Speaker 2: I think the brief, profound connection.
Speaker 1: That impacted their lives.
Speaker 2: I think that for me is a remember of power
Speaker 2: of how you don't have to have a connection through
Speaker 2: just you know, sexual or anything like the connection they
Speaker 2: had through those letters through the food. For me, that
Speaker 2: I think defines a relationship or love. I think it's beautiful.
Speaker 2: I think you will love that movie.
Speaker 4: I'm definitely going to check that out. I love the
Speaker 4: sound of that. I think it's not astonishing to me
Speaker 4: that the idea of a conversation through food is something
Speaker 4: that really appeals to you, because that's what your food is,
Speaker 4: and it's what your books are like. They are like
Speaker 4: having a conversation with your My favorite cookbooks are that way.
Speaker 3: You feel like.
Speaker 4: You're having a conversation with a person who wrote them
Speaker 4: because of their conversation with the food. And when you've
Speaker 4: cooked for me and all the other people who were
Speaker 4: there the night that we ate your food, you couldn't
Speaker 4: hear anybody talk because everyone was so busy eating. But
Speaker 4: I love that idea of the literal and the figurative
Speaker 4: communicating through a lunch box. That's so beautiful.
Speaker 2: It's a beautiful movie.
Speaker 3: So what question would you most like answered?
Speaker 1: Do you know what I'm thinking about this? For ages?
Speaker 1: Just I don't know.
Speaker 2: I think finding meaning and happiness in my life? Should
Speaker 2: my life be about finding meaning and happiness?
Speaker 3: If I know the root to one.
Speaker 2: Of those things, I think I would have also found the.
Speaker 1: Way to the other.
Speaker 3: If you find meaning and happiness in my life, Oh,
Speaker 3: I see.
Speaker 4: So do you not feel like those things are present
Speaker 4: in your life anyway?
Speaker 1: They are? Yes?
Speaker 2: Meaning for me, meaningful with be I'm just chasing this
Speaker 2: dream of being the best chef or a good author,
Speaker 2: or a good mom or you know, things that are
Speaker 2: meaningful for me. And happiness is where my family is,
Speaker 2: my friendships are There's two different things for me. They
Speaker 2: are in my life, but I'm still chasing them.
Speaker 4: So as your question, how you would combine both of those,
Speaker 4: how to cont them both.
Speaker 2: How to connect them, and how in that way would
Speaker 2: I be able to find join together happiness?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean it's the balance of it comes back
Speaker 4: to kind of the work ethic and feeling like there
Speaker 4: is huge meaning in our work, huge meaning in our family. Yeah,
Speaker 4: but how to connect those in a way that is balanced.
Speaker 4: I feel like that's pretty much everybody. I mean, well
Speaker 4: good people who are kind and loving and want to
Speaker 4: explore how it is to combine those things.
Speaker 3: But it's tricky, it is.
Speaker 2: I know, I'm very happy with that what I do,
Speaker 2: but I'm just pushing and pushing and pushing you know
Speaker 2: when it's going to be enough. But I think that
Speaker 2: to balance. Like you said, yeah, yeah, I mean good luck.
Speaker 2: But you're not alone feeling that way. It's like something
Speaker 2: that I said in my book. I was always complaining
Speaker 2: to my mother about the hustle and having to always
Speaker 2: work so hard and constantly trying to keep things going.
Speaker 2: And you know, I'm self employed, always have been, that's
Speaker 2: what you do too, and because getting exhausted with that,
Speaker 2: it exhausted with how much constant worry and work that takes.
Speaker 2: But she would always say that's why she got out
Speaker 2: of bed in the morning, and that if you took
Speaker 2: that away, we probably wouldn't be happy. In quotes, you know,
Speaker 2: it's really tricky because it's kind of counterintuitive. I think
Speaker 2: the stuff that you think, if you got rid of that,
Speaker 2: you'd be happy, but I don't think. No, if I
Speaker 2: got rid of hustling really hard every day for everything,
Speaker 2: every job, everything that I write.
Speaker 3: You know, I don't know who doesn't.
Speaker 4: I sit around and I sometimes make lists of people
Speaker 4: that I think have it really easy, and then I
Speaker 4: read it out to my boyfriend and he's like, no,
Speaker 4: I don't believe it.
Speaker 3: They had this thing. No, they wake up at four.
Speaker 4: In the morning and they remember when they did that. No,
Speaker 4: they made that film. It was rubbish. You know.
Speaker 1: It is one of those things I think. I don't know.
Speaker 2: Maybe I'm Indian, and I just think coming to this
Speaker 2: country and my daughter's a first generation here and living
Speaker 2: in a very white town on where I live in
Speaker 2: near a village, opening a restaurant or it's just constantly
Speaker 2: trying to prove myself. I think it's never going to
Speaker 2: be enough, you know, like you said, never going to
Speaker 2: be enough. It's just everybody has to do it, so it's.
Speaker 3: Not just me. Where was your restaurant in the Cotswolds.
Speaker 1: Yeah, South Gloucestershire.
Speaker 3: Yes, God, your food is amazing.
Speaker 4: But I think about that, like, did you in creating
Speaker 4: that place, that incredible restaurant, did you think about where
Speaker 4: you'd come from? Like, was that part of the journey
Speaker 4: of opening it there? Did it add another level of
Speaker 4: I really really understand where I came from because I'm
Speaker 4: in a place that is so extraordinarily different from It's
Speaker 4: not even London, you know London at least it's super multicultural,
Speaker 4: and you know it wouldn't be such a big deal,
Speaker 4: but that must have been such a big deal for you.
Speaker 2: It was, but my daughter was six months old, meaning
Speaker 2: and I really wanted to be where my kids are.
Speaker 2: If something happened, I could just rush quickly. I want
Speaker 2: to be around that. It affected my relationship with my kids,
Speaker 2: my husband because I wanted to open there. It took
Speaker 2: me nearly four years. The banks won't give me a loan.
Speaker 2: I sold all my jewelry, all the gold jourally my
Speaker 2: parents and my in laws had given me, sold all
Speaker 2: the jewey to invest in it, and my husband helped
Speaker 2: me along with it. But I think it was hard.
Speaker 2: But I didn't want to do it anywhere else. But
Speaker 2: people did support me, and people came from far places
Speaker 2: to eat.
Speaker 3: I know they did.
Speaker 4: I mean because it was incredible and it actually it
Speaker 4: wouldn't have mattered where it was, I don't think because
Speaker 4: it was so incredibly delicious, and that must.
Speaker 3: Have been amazingly satisfying for you to.
Speaker 4: Have created something that was really hard to create in
Speaker 4: a place that was local to you but not lots
Speaker 4: of people, and then to see everybody coming from all
Speaker 4: over the world.
Speaker 2: I think sometimes people say, oh, passion, you do the passion,
Speaker 2: because it's no.
Speaker 1: You have to have the pushing you. I had to
Speaker 1: be there.
Speaker 2: I had to be continuously sleek, push myself and be
Speaker 2: there like fourteen hours, killing myself. But I think the
Speaker 2: restaurant made me what I am today. I would not
Speaker 2: change anything about where I opened, and I think if
Speaker 2: I didn't open it there, I wouldn't open anywhere else.
Speaker 1: I think the restaurant is what Romi is today.
Speaker 4: How amazing I mean clearly. I mean everything has grown
Speaker 4: out of that. All of the books and all of
Speaker 4: the rest of the cooking has grown out of what
Speaker 4: began there.
Speaker 2: Right in's a little seed and that was my foundation
Speaker 2: and now it's all the branches.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, what person, place, or experience most altered your life?
Speaker 1: God, it's got to be Gundi. It's got to be
Speaker 1: my husband.
Speaker 2: I know it's People might think all that, but if
Speaker 2: you have to understand Indian men. And I always wanted
Speaker 2: a husband like my dad, who's really calm, really placid,
Speaker 2: very helpful to my mom. My dad is fantastic and
Speaker 2: I Gundhi was one of those people that really encouraged me.
Speaker 2: You know how we met and eventually opening the restaurant.
Speaker 2: Anything I sa said, he was there for me. He
Speaker 2: changed my life for many things. Also, anywhere in the
Speaker 2: world I go, he's always there to hold my hand
Speaker 2: and say, even if he's here, I'm there. He's always there.
Speaker 2: He's never said you can't do this and you can't
Speaker 2: do that. He's always been very supportive behind me. And
Speaker 2: a lot of people say, very se your husband. We
Speaker 2: never see him. He's very shy. He doesn't look like
Speaker 2: to go out anywhere. But he's always there for me.
Speaker 2: I think if he didn't support the way when I
Speaker 2: open the restaurant and looking after our daughters, I wouldn't
Speaker 2: be where I am today. I think, you know, and
Speaker 2: when some you know potwasher didn't turn up, he would
Speaker 2: go to the restaurant and wash the dishes for me
Speaker 2: in front of the house. Thing he has done, I
Speaker 2: can't tell you how lucky I have. I've known him
Speaker 2: for twenty seven years, and I think he's one of
Speaker 2: those people that has really really changed my wheels on
Speaker 2: many things. I think he keeps me grounded because I
Speaker 2: am a very hyper person. He's a very calm.
Speaker 4: Were you a chef when you met him? Were you
Speaker 4: already a professional chef?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: I was not at that time here when we met,
Speaker 2: because my mom had cancer when I was growing up
Speaker 2: and doing my A levels. When I got to know
Speaker 2: and I said to my dad, I want to be
Speaker 2: a chef and he said no, because they're very handful
Speaker 2: of women chefs in India and you just won't survive.
Speaker 1: And in a way he was right.
Speaker 2: I think when you have in you whatever you want
Speaker 2: to do, you eventually when I met gun Deep and
Speaker 2: I said, this is what I want to do and
Speaker 2: I want to be in the hospitality.
Speaker 3: Were you in India? Was this happening?
Speaker 4: So? When your dad said no, there are too few chefs,
Speaker 4: it's not a stable life. What did you then go
Speaker 4: on to do?
Speaker 1: I went on to do arts.
Speaker 2: I did literature, history and philosophy and completely different from
Speaker 2: what I did. And when I moved here and met
Speaker 2: gun Deep and I said, I want to open my
Speaker 2: own restaurant one day. We were like two in twenties,
Speaker 2: and he looked at me and he thought, this woman
Speaker 2: is going to do it.
Speaker 5: So wait, how did you get from philosophy and the
Speaker 5: arts in did you go to college in India?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: So what brought you to England? And how did you
Speaker 4: get from philosophy in the arts to I'm going to
Speaker 4: open a restaurant.
Speaker 2: I came here when I got married, you know, mad
Speaker 2: Gundi back in India, and then I just followed him.
Speaker 1: And then you're married.
Speaker 2: Here, so I think that kind of we met in
Speaker 2: a wedding and then we've just followed each other and
Speaker 2: I knew he's a keeper.
Speaker 1: He's a keeper. I'm not going to let him go.
Speaker 4: And how did you just never let go of that
Speaker 4: dream of having a restaurant, even when you were studying
Speaker 4: other things which were interesting and great. Were you still
Speaker 4: harboring those feelings of I'm going to open a restaurant
Speaker 4: one day?
Speaker 2: Always, always, always, aways, always I wrote to different chefs.
Speaker 2: Micheline started chef's cookery schools men when I came here
Speaker 2: in and I was like, don't give me money, don't
Speaker 2: pay me, I want to learn.
Speaker 1: I want to learn.
Speaker 2: All the techniques. Everything up front of the house is
Speaker 2: very important. Everything little detail about restaurant is not just
Speaker 2: about cooking. And a lot of the chefs did reply,
Speaker 2: and a lot of the cookery school did and didn't
Speaker 2: pay me.
Speaker 1: But it was okay.
Speaker 2: I was prepared to do things that I could learn,
Speaker 2: the techniques, the method, how it's done. I think you
Speaker 2: have to have that and you have to learn from people.
Speaker 4: Who was the first chef who really taught you beyond
Speaker 4: your mother and back home.
Speaker 2: Chef Manjid Gil who is in India. He was executive
Speaker 2: chefs of ITC in India and I always followed his vision.
Speaker 1: He used to be on television as well.
Speaker 2: And I wrote to him from here that I want
Speaker 2: to learn from you, and he did reply. Those times,
Speaker 2: calling India was so expensive, so I used to beautifully
Speaker 2: write letters and I got and replied back and he said, yes,
Speaker 2: I would love to teach you. I love to meet you.
Speaker 2: He's my mentor and he still guides.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's like you know, he's one of the I
Speaker 2: never met him, and I wrote to him and then
Speaker 2: I also should really give credit to Utule culture as
Speaker 2: amazing restaurants he was the first Mission Chef.
Speaker 3: Is it the first mission to start Indian restaurant?
Speaker 1: And he really helped me to be on TV.
Speaker 2: And he was doing this Master Chef in his restaurant
Speaker 2: and he said, I really like Romi to be on
Speaker 2: it as a guest judge. And my restaurant has just opened.
Speaker 2: He was really really encouraging. He said, Romey has opened
Speaker 2: this restaurant. She's really feisty, and she's really good at
Speaker 2: what she does.
Speaker 1: She knows the food.
Speaker 2: And you know, I always always mentioned the couple of
Speaker 2: people that really pushed me in my life. I think
Speaker 2: you should never forget those people. They're really important. People
Speaker 2: come in your life that really encourage you. He was
Speaker 2: the one who put intelligence and restless history. It's because
Speaker 2: of our all. And you know, Ali like meeting you
Speaker 2: talking about your book on Radio four, I know was incredible.
Speaker 4: It's an amazing thing that all of these things that
Speaker 4: connect us, like the appreciation of each other's art. I
Speaker 4: wish it happened more. I love it you reaching out
Speaker 4: to tell me that you love my book, or then
Speaker 4: all my friends hearing you on Radio food h that
Speaker 4: they've listened to forever, or me coming to eat in
Speaker 4: your pop up and bringing my friend and now her
Speaker 4: having your cookery books, and now us making your food together.
Speaker 4: Like there's such a beautiful exchange that I think it's
Speaker 4: lost or we forget it. In all of the hardship
Speaker 4: and the awfulness that is happening in the world, we
Speaker 4: forget there are these extraordinary moments.
Speaker 3: Where we lift each other up.
Speaker 4: Whether it's a mentor helping you to begin what's a
Speaker 4: pretty fantastic journey on television that you're so good on
Speaker 4: TV and on the radio, or I don't know, like
Speaker 4: people hearing about my book from you.
Speaker 3: I love that exchange.
Speaker 4: I think it's so important. You're the person I've wanted
Speaker 4: to ask this question to more than anybody else.
Speaker 3: Ever, what would be your last meal?
Speaker 1: My last meal? I wish one day I'd take you
Speaker 1: to India. You have to travel with me.
Speaker 3: I have never been. I will come with you, I think, because.
Speaker 2: I write for New York Times and many other publications
Speaker 2: and things, I put food and travel together. So I
Speaker 2: lost my mom in twenty nineteen and I was going
Speaker 2: to write an article for in Himachal Pradesh. I was
Speaker 2: going to take my mom on that journey. Just before
Speaker 2: they commissioned me this article and suddenly my mom passed
Speaker 2: away in February and I had to go back to
Speaker 2: India to write the article in March, and I said
Speaker 2: to my editor, is there anyway I can take my
Speaker 2: dad on a journey. I've lost my mom. I'm still
Speaker 2: grieving and my dad is We are grieving in two
Speaker 2: different ways. Dad, who's been with my mom for fifty
Speaker 2: two years and I have just lost her. And she said, O, yes,
Speaker 2: just take your dad going this journey together and.
Speaker 1: See what you find.
Speaker 2: And last day off my trip, I was going to
Speaker 2: do this paragliding and just before paragliding, my dad was
Speaker 2: really nervous of.
Speaker 1: Me doing it. You know, I'm crazy and do all
Speaker 1: this things. And so Dad, are you hungry? He said yes?
Speaker 2: And we found this tabo which is a roadside food
Speaker 2: eatering and I saw so many people queuing there and
Speaker 2: I said, it's only vegetarian and we stopped there. Maybe
Speaker 2: I had the most amazing vegetarian feast.
Speaker 1: I could have Italian. It's so cheap. That will be
Speaker 1: my last meal.
Speaker 2: It was curry chowol curdi is like a yogurt dish
Speaker 2: made with crumb flower, which is black chickpa flower, not
Speaker 2: the chickpi flower people. I think it's crumb flower, and
Speaker 2: we have these pecoras in it. Then kidney beans is
Speaker 2: a char which is a pickle tandoi rotti and dhal
Speaker 2: mcknee which is dull, and all these vegetarian feasts.
Speaker 1: My moutha is still watering.
Speaker 2: I know I cook and eat everything, but for me,
Speaker 2: vegetarian food is soulful because I grew up as a
Speaker 2: Punjabi eating a lot of vegetarian food, and we are
Speaker 2: naturally plant based. We are naturally vegetarian. We aren't even thinking,
Speaker 2: so I think that would be my mind.
Speaker 4: You wow, oh my god, I'm so hungry right now
Speaker 4: and I want your food.
Speaker 1: I have to come and cook for you.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, We're going to have to figure that out.
Speaker 4: I'm just imagining black chicky flour and I'm imagining percoras.
Speaker 3: So do you think that.
Speaker 4: It was the fact that you're there with your dad,
Speaker 4: your mama's gone, You're on this journey together, and I'm
Speaker 4: sure that it was exquisitely deliciously cooked. But do you
Speaker 4: think it was also the connection that this is food
Speaker 4: from your childhood and that they're in this moment, that
Speaker 4: that food, that the idea of the connection to your
Speaker 4: past is what makes this explode, because you must have
Speaker 4: eaten a thousand pcoras a thousand beautiful delicious vegetarian dishes,
Speaker 4: but like at that moment in your life, in your
Speaker 4: dad's life, to eat that delicious food quite unexpectedly, I.
Speaker 2: Imagine it was, and we were just stared at each
Speaker 2: other dipping in those blood breads pot. It was just
Speaker 2: I think my father found and happiness in a sense
Speaker 2: that he was with me and it was comforting the
Speaker 2: food that my mom would cook.
Speaker 1: As well, similar food.
Speaker 2: I think it was where the comfort of us being
Speaker 2: together was just literally six weeks ago lost Mom and
Speaker 2: we're together eating the food that mom would cook. I
Speaker 2: think that's why probably, like you said, very very true.
Speaker 3: Wow, gosh, can we go one day?
Speaker 4: Can we take trains and go from the Punjab all
Speaker 4: the way down to Carol.
Speaker 1: I hold you to that. We will do that.
Speaker 4: I've dreamed of that to start in the Punjab where
Speaker 4: my mother traveled all through India all her life, just
Speaker 4: dreamed of making that journey. So maybe we should do that,
Speaker 4: and maybe we should make a TV show out of it.
Speaker 1: Two women on long train journey in India.
Speaker 4: Two women on a long train journey in India. By
Speaker 4: the way, that is a really good time long, but
Speaker 4: that's what the journey would be.
Speaker 3: I don't think it would be a hard sell, to
Speaker 3: tell you the truth. I think it would be amazing.
Speaker 4: You're an angel I so look forward to two women
Speaker 4: on a long train journey in India, and to seeing
Speaker 4: you again in person, and to eating your extraordinary food.
Speaker 4: You know your cookbooks keep me company, so you're a germ.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, thank you for having mea.
Speaker 5: Okay, dear audience, this is the last episode for a
Speaker 5: little mini break, if you will. We'll be back in
Speaker 5: a few months with the second half of season three
Speaker 5: of Mini Questions, So until then, keep looking for the
Speaker 5: answers and asking the good questions. Mini Questions is hosted
Speaker 5: and written by Me Mini Driver, Executive produced by Me
Speaker 5: and Aaron Kaufman, with production support from Jennifer Bassett, Zoe Denkler,
Speaker 5: and Ali Perry.
Speaker 3: The theme music is also by Me and additional music
Speaker 3: by Aaron Kaufman.
Speaker 4: Special thanks to Jim Nikolay Addison, O'Day, Henry Driver, Lisa Castella,
Speaker 4: a Nick Oppenheim, a, Nick Muller and Annette wolf A
Speaker 4: w kPr, Will Pearson, Nikki Ito, Morgan Levoy and mangesh
Speaker 4: Had Tigadore