A recipe book that behaves like a storybook

The initial meeting is impossible to forget. We sat down, cups of cardamom chai and a plate of pakore laid out before us like blessings. A storm was due in Birmingham that day, and the air outside turned steely and low. There was talk of home, hunger and nostalgia. It was a good beginning.

In Delhi, it Pours was never going to be your standard culinary volume. There would be no henna patterns. No Sanskrit calligraphy. No attempts to reduce North Indian cuisine to aesthetic tokenism. Instead, we created a new kind of cookbook. Fiction-led, with original characters, each story inspired by the dishes on Indico’s menu.

There was Ali, the vada pav vendor who sleeps on a kitchen floor and writes letters of gratitude to strangers. And Jazz, a quietly defiant teenager navigating the tender terrain of her sexual identity. Each tale imagined with depth and emotion, then brought to life in hand-sketched illustrations by our artists, and matched with creative photography of the meals they inspired. One story. One sketch. One photo. One dish.

We structured the book with rhythm and breath, scattering moments of pause in between. These “And Breathe” sections give space for reflection. They invite the reader to feel, not just cook. Some have genuinely cried. Some have written to us with stories of their own.

The rain, the kites, even the stubborn full-stop.

“It is remarkable that something which nourishes the land, the soil, and all its life can carry such a damning reputation” – first line of In Delhi, it Pours.

In Delhi, when it pours, not every local scurries for shelter. They lean out of windows, lift their faces to the sky, and some even cook bright-orange tandoori chicken on the streets. Rain, to them, is a kind of spiritual nourishment; and so, it became the heart of our book. We chose to weave rain through every chapter not just as a weather report, but as a muse. A symbol of the quietly heroic. Of life returning. Of blessings arriving unannounced. Just like the people of Delhi who have always known how to make the most of what they have. The rain softened our stories; it made them glisten.

You might argue, the book itself is rooted in fiction, but built on truth. Not the truth of textbooks – the truth of observation. We spent months imagining, mapping and writing every original story, drawing inspiration from everyday heroes. Street vendors, schoolgirls, shopkeepers, seamstresses – people who are so often overlooked. We created each character from scratch, including their story arcs, personalities, and inner conflicts. Not a single line was AI-generated. Every word passed through human hands.

Each story was paired with a hand-drawn illustration and a full-page photograph. We briefed both artists and stylists in meticulous detail. From the wistful image of Ali working on the floor of his ramshackle kitchen, to a tattered thank you note scrawled in Urdu beside a warm Pav Bhaji – every visual was art directed by us. We even went prop-shopping in Belgrave Road, Leicester, where one kind-hearted shopkeeper gifted us colourful kites to use in our shoot! The photo shoots themselves spanned two full days. We styled each scene with care, curating every visual to honour the story behind it.

We worked closely with Away With Media – the publishing company – to edit, proof and finesse every detail, ensuring the tone of the book was both literary and accessible. We also led the wider marketing campaign, including the social media roll-out, the launch emails, and the website copy for Indico’s new online store (www.indicobazaar.com), where the book now sells out routinely.

It lingers, beautifully, like petrichor

There are some projects where every stage feels quietly fated; where instinct takes the lead, and kindness seems to follow you around. From the first story mapped out in the corner of a café, to the final photograph captured beneath a sun-dappled kite, In Delhi, it Pours became something far greater than a recipe book.

It became a tribute. Not just to the scent of wet earth and the hush that follows rainfall, but to the everyday people who bring meaning to the streets of North India. It honoured lives often dismissed: the grandmother who seasons without measuring, the boy who delivers chai barefoot at dawn, the woman who opens her tiffin and remembers the love that shaped her.

Now, this book rests on the shelves of Indico’s restaurants, and in the homes of thousands of readers who understand that food is never just food. It’s memory. It’s story. Even three years after its original launch, In Delhi, it Pours continues to sell (in copious amounts!) – contributing, largely, to Indico’s revenue and making it the first restaurant brand of its kind.

Warmest thank-yous to: Faheem Badur (owner, Indico), Alberto Zamaniego (photographer), and Vicki and Lei (illustrators).