Masterchef’s Kamini Pather Gets All Dahl’d Up

MasterChef winner and chef at large Kamini Pather is the rock star of Indian cooking.

Her new collection of recipes, All Dahl’d Up, is the sheet music to food that will have your taste buds zinging. Pather is not a stereotypical chef, and neither is the book; it is just a collection of recipes.

All Dahl’d Up is not another monologue dedicated to memory, identity, how food mirrors life, or other cliches.  

While the recipes are cemented in the Durban home she grew up in, they’ve taken detours through world travel, personal health and a desire to strip Indian cuisine of its heavy reputation.

Think less deep-fried samosas and more tamarind-laced aubergine that you can knock together on a Tuesday night and still make book club.

“The book is incredibly personal,” Pather said. “It’s how I see Indian food. Some of it is what I grew up with, and some is what I’ve added to the mix along the way.”

She spent time with her 91-year-old grandmother and learning unmeasured family recipes. As in, not ten mills of this and twenty cups of that. Just a pinch and a cinch kind of cooking.

Once she had the gist, she reworked them in her own kitchen, adding lighter techniques and more modern takes to match how people eat today.

Indian food moves and changes with people

“Indian food moves and changes with people,” she said. “At some point, the double carbs and fried everything had their moment. But that’s not how many of us eat in 2025.”

The recipes include expected staples like Sunday chicken curry and hot water roti, but also surprises with dishes like sour brinjal, a South Indian bit of deliciousness.

“Most South Africans only know North Indian food, which is creamier because of a Persian influence. But I come from the South, where coconut and tamarind rule.” 

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Pather is not a textbook chef. She never went to culinary school and has no desire to follow the gate-kept versions of gastronomic arts.

“My old-school chef mates roll their eyes when I call something biryani that doesn’t follow the strict rules. But that’s the point. We get to play now.”

Her food philosophy is based on intention. Whether she’s cooking for friends or developing recipes, she focuses on how people feel when they eat.

“I think people who cook are often people pleasers. You think about who’s at your table, what they love, what they remember. It’s love, yes, but it’s also very conscious.”

When off duty, she likes simple cooking. A peanut curry, some yoghurt rice, and crunchy vegetables are often enough.

“People assume we’re making elaborate meals every night, but honestly, the best thing to eat is usually the thing someone else cooked for you.”

Ultimately, Pather wants to spread the gospel that Indian food can be just as big and become just as popular as Italian or Chinese cuisine.

A web series to further propagate her agenda might be on the cards, something in the spirit of Anthony Bourdain with a South African slant, Pather said.

“Perhaps it will explore how traditional flavours survive and thrive in contemporary kitchens. I’d love to shine a light on the people doing that work. The ones bringing heritage into the now.

“I want people to see Indian food in a different light. To page through, be inspired and then go do your own thing. That’s the magic.”

Lighter Indian cuisine

The visual storytelling in All Dahl ’ed Up is just as important to Pather as the recipes. It stretches the storytelling element further.

She shied away from the expected,, and there were, as she shared, no thick gravies on copper trays, no over-styled naans with beads of unnecessary sweat.

Pather insisted on a look that felt fresh and updated.

“I told the designers I didn’t want it to be styled the way Indian food usually is. I wanted people to see it in a new way.”

While she’s not a schooled chef by degree, Pather’s attraction to food also didn’t start in the kitchen but in the pages of a foodie magazine called Taste.

As a student, she would transcribe restaurant blurbs into her phone and dream of a future filled with those flavours as described.

That hunger for storytelling through cuisine eventually led her to a win on MasterChef South Africa, and then to television with Girl Eat World.

When not in the kitchen, she walks her dog, runs, or explores Johannesburg’s gourmet burgers.

Health is a priority too. She studied nutrition coaching during lockdown and began cooking more for herself to take charge of her own wellness.

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