A TRUE PASSION FOR INDIAN CUISINE

Noorbanu Nimji cooked for her family for over 60 years and taught Indian cooking for 40 years.

A Masala Master and her Spice Apprentice

Noorbanu Nimji’s knowledge of spices was innate. Amounts, combinations and flavour memories – she expressed them as intuition as she flowed through the preparation of her favourite dishes. She was a masala (spice blending) master.

Noorbanu was born in Nairobi, Kenya not long after her parents moved from Gujarat, India. Her recipes reflect the dishes of Gujarat and other North India regional influences. Life in Kenya added East African dishes to the repertoire. The recipes in A Spicy Touch – Family Favourites from Noorbanu Nimji’s Kitchen are further influenced by Noorbanu’s move to Canada. 

The Nimji family moved to Canada in 1974 when then-president of Uganda, Idi Amin was “expelling” non-Africans from East Africa. Noorbanu and her family walked away from all they owned.

Soon after her arrival in Calgary, she was noticed for her cooking and asked to teach the displaced youth of her Ismaili community. The Ismaili are about 12 million of the world’s 2 billion muslims. Noorbanu taught for a decade before publishing her recipes in three volumes in 1986, 1992 and 2007.

In 2006, Noorbanu began working on the manuscript for A Spicy Touch – Family Favourites from Noorbanu Nimji’s Kitchen with Calgary writer Karen Anderson. That book won both IPPY and Taste Canada awards in 2016. Noorbanu was also recognized by Western Living magazine that year as one of Western Canada’s Top Foodies.

Noorbanu passed away peacefully on June 10, 2020 at age 85. She leaves four children, six grandchildren, one great grandchild and many friends and A Spicy Touch fans who will miss her dearly.

In 2021, Noorbanu was posthumously inducted into the Taste Canada Hall of Fame.

Karen Anderson is founder and owner of Alberta Food Tours, Inc. She’s led 10 cuisine and culture trips to different regions of India and is currently working on a South Indian cookbook featuring all the great chefs and home cooks she’s met there. Anderson is a Taste Canada, IPPY, and World Gourmand Cookbook award winning cookbook and travel writer.

Having met Noorbanu in 1996 when she took one of her cooking classes, she began working at her side between 2006 and 2015, testing recipes and teaching Indian cooking classes. Since Noorbanu’s retirement in 2015 and passing in 2020, she has been teaching Indian cooking classes based on her great mentor’s legacy of shared knowledge.

All the A Spicy Touch cookbooks were a true labour of love, a family affair, and are dedicated to home cooks everywhere who wish to access the key to making the passage to Indian cooking.