Dishoom: From Bombay with Love

The cookbook from one of Britain’s most beloved Indian restaurant chains, Dishoom draws on Bombay’s Irani cafe tradition to create food that sits at the intersection of Indian and British dining culture. This is not a traditional curry house cookbook, but it captures the spirit of what makes British Indian food special: comfort, generosity, and bold flavors adapted for a specific time and place.

Why This Book

Dishoom occupies a unique space in British Indian cooking. The restaurants are inspired by the Irani cafes of Bombay, communal eating houses run by Zoroastrian immigrants from Iran that became institutions in the city. The cookbook brings that tradition to the home kitchen with recipes for the dishes that made Dishoom famous: the bacon naan roll, black daal, chicken ruby curry, lamb raan, and house chai.

Where The Curry Guy focuses on replicating the classic BIR curry house experience, Dishoom offers something more expansive. The recipes range from breakfast dishes and street food snacks through to elaborate weekend projects. The black daal alone, simmered for 24 hours, has converted thousands of home cooks. The book is as much a love letter to Bombay as it is a cookbook, filled with stories, photographs, and cultural context that make the recipes feel alive.

The difficulty level is a step up from a straightforward curry house cookbook. Some recipes require patience and planning, and the ingredient lists can be longer. But the instructions are thorough, and the results consistently deliver the kind of food that makes people ask for the recipe.

What to Expect

A substantial 399-page hardcover that functions as both cookbook and cultural document. Over 100 recipes organized from morning to night. Beautiful photography and storytelling throughout. You will need a decent spice collection and some recipes call for specialty ingredients, though most can be sourced from a good supermarket or online. Named a New York Times notable cookbook and a Food52 best cookbook of the year.