Hey there, I'm Glenn Weldon. This is NPR's Book of the Day.

Decades ago now, I bought for myself a cheap paperback copy of Madder Joffrey's very first cookbook, an invitation to Indian cooking.

And it's been with me ever since through five states, four relationships, three apartments, and two houses.

You can tell my go-to recipes have been torn out

and taped back in. The pages are stained with turmeric and saffron and ghee, and there's a dried

smear of what I think is Red Doll across the back cover. The spine split in two long ago,

somewhere on the drive between Iowa City and Washington, D.C. Joffrey is

89 now, and she's out with an updated edition of that first cookbook, which means I can finally

retire the sad beat-up copy on my kitchen shelf that's bound together by nothing but a couple

rubber bands and memory. And beers Michelle Martin got to visit Joffrey in her home and talk about her extraordinary

life and poke around her kitchen. I am seethingly jealous. This conversation aired on Morning

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When we arrive at Matter Jaffrey's home in upstate New York, it might have been a little rude,

but of course we asked to see the kitchen first.

I have everything.

You still grind your own spices?

Yes.

I have a coffee grinder.

...