Salma Husain

Salma Husain is a food historian, author and Persian scholar. She uses Persia to explore the history of the cuisines cooked and eaten during the Mughal era. She has worked with Indian and international television channels on different perspectives and aspects relating to the history of food. In 2009, her book, The Emperor’s Table: The Art of the Mughal Cuisine received the National Tourism Award from the Vice President of India, as well as the Gourmand World Cookbook Award in the same year, from Paris. She worked as consultant on Indian food for the ITC Group of Hotels for a number of years. Her most recent work is a heritage volume, tracing the history of dining and entertainment at Rashtrapati Bhavan, titled Around India’s First Table.
At present, she contributes stories on food culture and history for the Urdu division of the BBC. She is the author of a number of books on food: The Pull of Pulses, 50 Great Sherbets of India, Flavours of Avadh and Islamic Food with a Healing Touch (published by Roli Books). Nuskha-e-Shahjahani, published under the title The Mughal Feast, contains translated recipes from the reign of Shah Jahan.