RECIPE: KAY PLUNKETT-HOGGE AND ROHIT RAZDAN. PHOTOGRAPHS: MYLES NEW. FOOD STYLING: SOPHIE AUSTEN-SMITH. STYLING: LUIS PERAL
A BIT ABOUT THE FILM In Today’s Special, Samir, a struggling sous-chef at a posh restaurant in New York City, decides to quit his job to become a trainee chef in France – until his father has a heart attack. Samir gives up his dream to save the family’s run-down Indian restaurant in Queens.
WHO ARE THE STARS? Aasif Mandvi, Jess Weixler, Naseeruddin Shah, Harish Patel and actress and cookery writer Madhur Jaffrey.
WHY THIS FILM? “Masala is the soul of Indian food,” Samir’s hired chef, Akbar, tells him, “and food is the soul of India…” The universal truth that food is always better when cooked for love rather than profit is also a universal conundrum: your restaurant exists to turn food into money, but without love and soul, you can’t do it well.
Today’s Special is about more than food. It’s about roots. We watch as Samir learns from Akbar that the food of his roots is like a raga, a musical phrase that you build upon and improvise with. Roots don’t hold you down – they’re there to give you wings.