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Hello, I'm Kirstie Young.

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Music

My cast away this week is the businesswoman Pinkie Lillani.

She grew up surrounded by people and food and it's proved a lifelong recipe for success.

With her well-placed position on power lists and networking forums giving a flavour of her dynamism and flair.

Born and brought up amid privilege and luxury in India, when she married she swapped Calcutta for Croiden and left behind not just her family but the help too.

And so she had to learn how to cook.

Her working life outside the home began by teaching her recipes in night classes,

progressed to advising big food companies on how to create authentic Indian pickles and sauces and culminated in her setting up the Asian women of achievement awards.

These days, in her own kitchen over Jira, chicken and parathas, she holds team-building workshops believing the food we prepare and share together can help foster a more cohesive world.

She says, I cook from the heart. Actually, I do everything from the heart. So Pinkie Lillani, welcome. What's your signature dish?

I think it is spicy bombé potatoes because I make that more often than anything else because I travel with my walk and make spicy bombé potatoes.

You travel with your walk?

I actually take it everywhere and it's great fun. It's a great way of getting people involved in what you're doing and enjoying your food and what you bring to the table.

And if anything goes wrong, I just add a lot more coriander and this actually saves the dish. So it's not intimidating at all.

You once said that the positive energy from the tips of our fingers transfers to the food. It's no good cooking in a bad mood because it will show.

Now, I think that's a charming thing to think but I'm not sure it's entirely true. I mean, some of our very best chefs seem to be constantly grumpy and people still enjoy their food. Do you really believe that's true?

I do. I think, you know, whenever I cook in a bad mood, my food never tastes good. So for me, it works really. I think it really is important. I think mothers cook really well. So a lot of children will say my mother cooks really well and because she's cooked from the heart.

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