It's all in the family: Sotheby's India MD Gaurav Bhatia chronicling grandmother's recipes, including Yakhni Pulao

It’s rare to find an art collector who counts family recipes as prized heirlooms. Gaurav Bhatia, managing director, Sotheby’s India, is one such connoisseur, for whom his most prized heirloom is his family’s cuisine. Bhatia, who hails from Lucknow says, “Back in the day, they used simple masalas and produced extraordinary food. That way of cooking, the culinary exposure, is just not there in our lives anymore.”

So now, Bhatia has tasked his mother with penning down a family recipe book to keep those recipes documented. “It’s not like my grandmother left a recipe book for my mother. These things will just get lost. I really want to pass that on to my children,” says Bhatia, listing his family’s Yakhni Pulao recipe one of his favourites.

Not much can keep Bhatia away from his passion and the conversation soon turns to his family heirlooms — a silver glass, which belonged to his great grandfather and Jamawar shawls, that were passed on to his mother from his great grandmother.