The 477th recipe in Jane DSouza’s Cook Book contains a rather innovative formula — Maggi Brinoodlepot, which consists of regular instant noodles zhuzhed up with ingredients that sound a bit like those that go into an eggplant potato gratin. “It is my own invention,” says DSouza with a smile, about the recipe that won her the first prize at the Nestlé (India) Open to All cooking contest in 2002.
Experimenting with recipes comes easily to DSouza; she has been winning cooking prizes in her hometown Mangaluru for decades now. “I was interested in cooking from childhood,” says the 71-year-old. She recalls cutting out recipes from women’s magazines such as Femina and Women’s Era and experimenting with those right from when she was in school, says DSouza, who moved to Kuwait in the 70s after her wedding.
