It’s a summer afternoon, sultry, dipped in the yellow of the sun, that Pranita Sinha, a housewife, remembers. It was a Sunday, it was always a Sunday, when she stood in the warm kitchen, four feet in height, reaching to her grandmother’s chest. “She was a tall lady,” she reminisces fondly, her eyes drifting far away, somewhere in the past. “And she made a mean biriyani, something that her grandmother taught her,” she says.

Clutter of utensils fills the kitchen as she roasts the masalas, a medley of cumin, cinnamon, red chillies, nutmeg, peppercorns, and coriander wafting in the air, reminding you of local spice markets where the aroma of turmeric and red chillies hang in the air. This also is a warm summer day; the sun is at its peak, painting everything golden, the trees, the cars in the parking lot you could see from the tiny kitchen window.

“I had never thought that I would get the flavours right. But it’s all in the techniques. In my family, they have been making it like this since ages. The clay pot gives the flavour mainly,” she says, looking into empty space. She removes the pan from the stove and transfers the contents to a pestle; a washed clay pot is placed on the white kitchen counter. “The mortar grinding is very important. Nowadays, we have mixers and all, but the flavour is unmatched, and apparently, it’s good for health too,” she adds, engrossed in the process mechanically. It’s generations packed in a recipe, memories, history, love, all in one.

Food is like that, a story of generations, the recipes, the techniques, everything is timeless but in today’s fast-paced world where a McDonald’s sign is instantly recognisable and bright packets of instant noodles fill the supermarket shelves, these old stories are buried in forgotten corners of modern life. But the good news is they are somehow making a comeback. Who would have thought? The mortar and pestle, some years earlier living as a kitchen memento, now sees daily action in many homes.

India is witnessing a vibrant return to its culinary roots, with traditional cooking techniques making a notable comeback in homes and restaurants alike, driven by a renewed interest in health, sustainability, and heritage.

Methods like slow cooking in mitti ke bartan, stone grinding, fermentation and sun-drying are being embraced once more. Chefs across the country, from fancy kitchens to local dhabas, are reviving age-old recipes, believing that techniques like dum pukht and wood-fire cooking enhance both the flavour and nutrition of the dishes.

Enter Chalapathi Rao, a Hyderabad-based chef, who doesn’t seem the type to romanticise the past till you get him talking about cooking. And then he speaks with the seriousness usually reserved for love.