Kerala is a confluence of cultures and cuisines. The cuisine varies across communities and the length of the state (Kerala is not broad enough to admit much variety across its breadth!). A normal banquet or buffet is a collage of cuisines.The cuisine of the 2000 year-old Kerala Syrian Christians blends the Indian European. The Syrian Christians, especially of Pala, in central Kerala, have developed an uncommon aristocratic and elegant lifestyle, reflected in their earlier fine wooden Tharavad homes and modern houses and the traditional cuisine and the western cooking they adapted.

Today things have changed. The family functions caterers serve excellent though hotelish food. The authentic traditional taste is foreign to many a Palakar these days. So you may not come by the traditional Syrian Christian cuisines easily. Hence this book.

While searching for recipes, we came across a veritable treasure trove of traditional and western cuisine at the kitchen of the Kottukappally family, one the most illustrious Syrian Christian families.