Pure Punjabi

The Business of Recipes Story Cookbook

Name: The Business of Recipes Story Cookbook
Brand: Pure Punjabi
Price: 32.99 GBP
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The Business of Recipes

More than a cookbook — a story of food, family, heritage and entrepreneurship

The Business of Recipes is far more than a traditional Indian cookbook.

It is the story of a Punjabi family, a daughter's journey, and traditional culinary knowledge passed from mother to daughter across generations.

It brings together 40+ traditional Punjabi recipes, cooking techniques, family stories, immigrant experiences and entrepreneurial insights, creating a book that can be cooked from, read as a story and returned to for ideas and reflection.

From mother to daughter

Traditionally, Punjabi daughters learned to cook at their mother's side — first by watching and helping, then by working alongside her, and eventually by being entrusted with preparing the family's meals.

Surinder Hothi began learning this way at just seven years old.

By the age of eleven, alongside the responsibilities of grammar school, she was also responsible for preparing her family's evening meal.

This was not simply a matter of following written recipes. Knowledge was learned through watching, doing, tasting, correcting and sharing food together.

The Business of Recipes documents that way of learning.

It records the recipes, techniques, methods, memories and stories behind the food that formed the heart of a Punjabi family growing up in Britain — preserving knowledge that was traditionally passed on through generations rather than written down.

More than recipes

The recipes are at the heart of the book, but they are only part of the story.

Through food, Surinder explores how immigrant families used food, property and entrepreneurship to create sustainable livelihoods — from homes and shops to guest houses, hotels, bed & breakfasts, food stalls and markets.

The book offers practical observations and lived experience around:

Traditional Punjabi and Indian cooking
Food and hospitality businesses
Property and building financial security
Self-employment and entrepreneurship
Family businesses
Women and their often-overlooked contribution to family life and business
Parenting and family relationships
Immigration and adapting to life in Britain
The contrasts between Eastern and Western perspectives
Culture, identity and changing generations
Nutrition and the role of food in family life

The result is a book about what food can teach us about business, family, culture and life.

Traditional Punjabi cooking — and the stories behind it

The recipes are not presented simply as a list of ingredients and instructions.

They sit within the context in which the food was cooked, learned and enjoyed.

From dishes such as Chana Dhal, Aloo Gobi and Saag to other traditional family recipes, Surinder shares the methods, techniques and experiences behind the food.

The result is an authentic Punjabi cookbook for people who want to cook traditional food — while also offering the history, memories and personal stories that make those recipes meaningful.

Growing up between two worlds

Born into a Punjabi Sikh immigrant family, Surinder grew up carrying the traditions and expectations of her Eastern heritage while building a life in Britain.

Her story takes the reader from childhood and family life into work, self-employment, marriage, motherhood and business.

From growing up in a guest house and working in the family supermarket, to eventually founding Pure Punjabi, the multi-award-winning food business she runs with her daughter, the book follows the determination, resilience and resourcefulness involved in building a life and business between two cultures.

From family food to Pure Punjabi

The knowledge that began in Surinder's mother's kitchen eventually became part of a much wider journey.

Today, Pure Punjabi shares Punjabi food and culture through cookery experiences, food products and events.

The Indian Experience Cookery Workshop brings some of those traditional lessons into a modern hands-on setting, giving participants the opportunity to learn through doing — much as Surinder herself learned from her mother.

But one workshop can only offer a glimpse of a learning process that traditionally developed over years.

The Business of Recipes preserves that knowledge on the page.

It allows the recipes, techniques, stories and observations to be passed on to another generation — and to readers who may never have had the opportunity to learn them at a mother's side.

Food for Thought

At the end of each chapter, Surinder invites the reader to look beyond the story and consider different perspectives.

Each chapter includes four Food for Thought sections:

Business & Money
Observations and lessons from real-life experience.

Immigrant & British Perspectives
Different ways of looking at culture, opportunity, responsibility and belonging.

Culture, Family & Parenting
Questions and observations about family life, changing generations and cultural expectations.

Nutrition & Health
Thoughts about food, nourishment and the role food plays in everyday life.

These sections encourage the reader to consider different — and sometimes opposing — Eastern and Western perspectives, rather than simply presenting one point of view.

A book to cook from — and a story to read

Whether you come to the book for the recipes, the family story, the business experience or the cultural history, The Business of Recipes offers several ways into the same story.

It is for:

Lovers of Punjabi and Indian food
Anyone interested in traditional cooking and family recipes
British Asians exploring their own heritage or that of their parents and grandparents
Younger generations wanting to understand the experiences of those who came before them
Readers interested in immigration and British Asian history
Women interested in business, self-employment and entrepreneurship
Readers interested in family history, culture and identity
Anyone fascinated by the connection between food, family and business
Cookbook collectors and those looking for something beyond a conventional recipe book

Part Punjabi cookbook. Part family memoir. Part entrepreneurial journey. Part cultural history.

What readers are saying

— Amazon reader, 5-star review

“An explosion of flavours jump out of the pages at you!”

“This book guides the reader into a world so much further beyond a typical Indian cookery recipe book. You get to understand the reasons and history behind dishes, the photos are top quality so you want to taste and/or make the food and you engage with the authors personal ambitions and resilience as she eloquently tells her story.”

— Amazon reader, 5-star review

“Highly recommended”

“This book is striking in its originality as I’ve never read anything similar. It explains her ambition and hard work - Indian/English family life - good and bad in both cases. The pictures of the food just make you hungry.”

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Beta reader feedback:

"...this is a stunning idea - an autobiography and cook book combined - unique - so you arouse the reader’s curiosity on two or rather three counts, basic things - food and life and business. The recipes and the photos are stunning - mouth-watering. And the essential simplicity plus depth of the recipes, which you emphasise, is a real selling point as well as really authentic. And actually it is the authenticity of these recipes that is a winner … it is frankly business orientated - as your culture makes you - and this is a new angle.

I loved the way that your family life and culture emerges slowly as you read - never being hit (wonderful - and I bet you didn’t hit your own children either - goodness gets handed on) - your father’s character - the intensity of the love. How lucky you were.

The written style. it is lively and intense and very alive. I love it. I think your English is very vivid and very you.

This is such an original VIVID book".

Professor Isobel Armstrong, Emeritus Professor of English, Birkbeck, University of London, a Fellow of the British Academy and International Scholar of the American Academy.

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"This is far more than a cookbook.

The Business of Recipes blends stunning food photography, deeply authentic Punjabi recipes, and a powerful family story into something genuinely memorable. Yes, the recipes are exceptional: rich, generous, and rooted in tradition. But it’s the story behind them that gives this book weight.

Surinder Hothi tells the journey of her immigrant family with honesty, humour, and heart. What unfolds is a story of resilience, entrepreneurship, identity, and love shaped by the influence of her remarkable mother and her formidable father. The dynamics, struggles, and small victories are shared in a way that feels both personal and universal.

There’s a warmth to Surinder's writing that draws you in. You’re not just learning recipes, you’re being invited into a kitchen, a culture, and a life. Surinder's humour softens the harder edges of her story, but never undermines the depth of what’s been built and overcome.

What I loved most is that beneath the food and storytelling are deeper lessons about building something from very little, about values, about legacy, and about what it really means to create a life and a business.

If you’re expecting a traditional cookbook, The Business of Recipes will surprise you. If you’re interested in stories of family, culture, and entrepreneurial spirit, it will stay with you".

Joe Gregory, Entrepreneur, Author and Publisher

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