--- product_id: 240262295 title: "Masala Lab: The Science of Indian Cooking - the bestseller on food, the definitive book for every Indian kitchen, illustrated" price: "759949₫" currency: VND in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.vn/products/240262295-masala-lab-the-science-of-indian-cooking-the-bestseller-on store_origin: VN region: Vietnam --- # Compact & travel-friendly format Bestseller #1 in Food & Lodging Science-backed cooking insights Masala Lab: The Science of Indian Cooking - the bestseller on food, the definitive book for every Indian kitchen, illustrated **Price:** 759949₫ **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Summary > 🍛 Decode Indian Cooking Like a Pro — Science Meets Spice! ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Masala Lab: The Science of Indian Cooking - the bestseller on food, the definitive book for every Indian kitchen, illustrated - **How much does it cost?** 759949₫ with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.vn](https://www.desertcart.vn/products/240262295-masala-lab-the-science-of-indian-cooking-the-bestseller-on) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Key Features - • **Master the Art & Science:** Unlock the chemistry behind perfect Indian dishes with expert-backed techniques. - • **Algorithmic Cooking Hacks:** Leverage software-engineered methods to customize gravies, biryanis, and more. - • **Travel-Ready Culinary Wisdom:** Compact design lets you carry kitchen secrets wherever you go. - • **Bestseller with Proven Impact:** Join 3,200+ readers who rated it 4.5 stars for transforming their cooking game. - • **Myth-Busting & Time-Saving Tips:** Discover why soaking, brining, and microwave cooking can revolutionize your kitchen routine. ## Overview Masala Lab is the definitive illustrated guide blending science and Indian cooking, authored by software engineer Krish Ashok. This bestseller demystifies traditional techniques with chemistry, humor, and practical tips, helping readers optimize cooking times, master perfect biryanis, and bust common kitchen myths. Highly rated and compact, it’s a must-have for food lovers eager to elevate their culinary skills with a scientific edge. ## Description Ever wondered why your grandmother threw a teabag into the pressure cooker while boiling chickpeas, or why she measured using the knuckle of her index finger? Why does a counter-intuitive pinch of salt make your kheer more intensely flavourful? What is the Maillard reaction and what does it have to do with fenugreek? What does your high-school chemistry knowledge, or what you remember of it, have to do with perfectly browning your onions? Masala Lab by Krish Ashok is a science nerd's exploration of Indian cooking with the ultimate aim of making the reader a better cook and turning the kitchen into a joyful, creative playground for culinary experimentation. Just like memorizing an equation might have helped you pass an exam but not become a chemist, following a recipe without knowing its rationale can be a sub-optimal way of learning how to cook. Exhaustively tested and researched, and with a curious and engaging approach to food, Krish Ashok puts together the one book the Indian kitchen definitely needs, proving along the way that your grandmother was right all along. Review: Thoroughly enjoyed Krish's take on the science behind food - Book Review Finished reading Krish Ashok's sensational book Masala Lab which delves into the Science of Cooking and how it can help us save time, hone our cooking skills, bust some myths and cook that Perfect Biriyani, our most prized invention and the highest ordered item in Indian restaurants. Krish employs a mix of chemistry and equations but also tries to lighten it with his trademark humor and wit and links it with the practicalities of cooking in an Indian kitchen. I was quite relieved to know microwave cooking is perfectly safe and that I can continue to cook rice in a microwave (always wonder why more people dont do it), which is how I have been cooking rice for quite long now. The various chapters in the book deal with the various methods of cooking, why we soak lentils and rice, the wonders of pressure cooking and how to make the perfect idli/dosa batter and even chapatis. I learnt that kneading can actually be done away with when it comes to soft chapatis (wish I knew this years back when I started out!). Why meat requires finesse when it comes to cooking and the ideal temperatures is again something new I learnt as is the importance of BRINING meat, a new revelation. Like this there are several tricks and tips throughout the book. There are illustrative tables of spice combos, diagrams of fleshy onions and dancing molecules and smoking points for oils. Finally Krish introduces us to his algorithm approach to making basic gravies, raitas, rice and even the perfect mouthwatering biriyani. What else can you expect from a guy who is a software engineer and not a chef?! Thoroughly enjoyed the book and while there are no fail proof recipes and neither will you be churning out delicious food just yet, it will surely help you to modify your cooking process for the better and discard some wrong or useless practices. Because as Krish rightly says making the tastiest dish can differ from person to person, house to house, where you sourced your meat or vegetables, the temperature of the city where you are cooking and the temperature when it hits your tongue! I hope Krish will write Part II and cover some more areas: seafood for eg which is not covered much and help answer some more of my queries like why I still struggle to make a decent cup of coffee consistently? But he does answer a lot of viewer queries on his Instagram page which you should definitely follow if you want more food science enlightenment. Apart from the book of course! Review: Engaging - Masala Lab by Krish Ashok is an engaging exploration of the intersection between food and science. It unpacks the 'why' and 'how' behind cooking methods, offering insights that might surprise even seasoned cooks. The book encourages journaling your culinary experiments until perfection, making it a curious and methodical guide for those eager to refine their cooking skills. #masalalab #KrishAshok #penguin ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #606 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #1 in Food & Lodging #1 in Children's Books on Diet & Nutrition #1 in Chemistry Books | | Customer Reviews | 4.5 out of 5 stars 3,219 Reviews | ## Images ![Masala Lab: The Science of Indian Cooking - the bestseller on food, the definitive book for every Indian kitchen, illustrated - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81BGNqBFZmL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Thoroughly enjoyed Krish's take on the science behind food *by B***E on 14 November 2023* Book Review Finished reading Krish Ashok's sensational book Masala Lab which delves into the Science of Cooking and how it can help us save time, hone our cooking skills, bust some myths and cook that Perfect Biriyani, our most prized invention and the highest ordered item in Indian restaurants. Krish employs a mix of chemistry and equations but also tries to lighten it with his trademark humor and wit and links it with the practicalities of cooking in an Indian kitchen. I was quite relieved to know microwave cooking is perfectly safe and that I can continue to cook rice in a microwave (always wonder why more people dont do it), which is how I have been cooking rice for quite long now. The various chapters in the book deal with the various methods of cooking, why we soak lentils and rice, the wonders of pressure cooking and how to make the perfect idli/dosa batter and even chapatis. I learnt that kneading can actually be done away with when it comes to soft chapatis (wish I knew this years back when I started out!). Why meat requires finesse when it comes to cooking and the ideal temperatures is again something new I learnt as is the importance of BRINING meat, a new revelation. Like this there are several tricks and tips throughout the book. There are illustrative tables of spice combos, diagrams of fleshy onions and dancing molecules and smoking points for oils. Finally Krish introduces us to his algorithm approach to making basic gravies, raitas, rice and even the perfect mouthwatering biriyani. What else can you expect from a guy who is a software engineer and not a chef?! Thoroughly enjoyed the book and while there are no fail proof recipes and neither will you be churning out delicious food just yet, it will surely help you to modify your cooking process for the better and discard some wrong or useless practices. Because as Krish rightly says making the tastiest dish can differ from person to person, house to house, where you sourced your meat or vegetables, the temperature of the city where you are cooking and the temperature when it hits your tongue! I hope Krish will write Part II and cover some more areas: seafood for eg which is not covered much and help answer some more of my queries like why I still struggle to make a decent cup of coffee consistently? But he does answer a lot of viewer queries on his Instagram page which you should definitely follow if you want more food science enlightenment. Apart from the book of course! ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Engaging *by P***R on 26 March 2025* Masala Lab by Krish Ashok is an engaging exploration of the intersection between food and science. It unpacks the 'why' and 'how' behind cooking methods, offering insights that might surprise even seasoned cooks. The book encourages journaling your culinary experiments until perfection, making it a curious and methodical guide for those eager to refine their cooking skills. #masalalab #KrishAshok #penguin ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Indian cooking explained. Finally! *by A***K on 10 July 2021* If you’ve ever wanted to be a better cook, wondered why food cooks the way it does, and how you can replicate perfectly cooked food every single time without having to refer to an expert, then this book truly is God sent. Contrary to popular belief, cooking is a science, NOT an art, and Masala Lab by Krish Ashok reiterates exactly that. We are at a juncture in time where people who did not grow up cooking would like to get into it, and the age old adage of ‘I learned watching my grandma’ just isn’t a feasible path to developing said skills. An engineer by profession, Krish spends time debunking this whole ‘Indian cooking can’t be learned in a book’ myth that the cooks of old want us to believe, while still graciously acknowledging their undeniable skill at preparing fantastic tasting food. And he does that with science and data aka evidence. He explores the chemical reasons why foods taste the way they do, and how cooking it in specific ways transforms them into flavour. I’ll admit, a lot of it tends to be quite science-y, and I really needed to take a trip down 10th std chemistry’s memory lane to get most of it, and that really might not be everyone’s cup of tea. The good news, though, is that it doesn’t negatively affect your understanding of the rest of the book (or improving your cooking). It doesn’t matter if you don’t get the chemical and molecular science of what makes meat tender, so long as you know how to actionably tenderise it every single time, and in that regards, the actionable intel is there in abundance. Undoubtedly snarky in narration (love it), Krish is conversely kind and open-minded- a trait that’s rare in a genre filled with snobs concerned more with telling you what makes you unworthy and inauthentic. Because Masala Lab is concerned less with authenticity and tradition, but more with just making sure you get tasty, flavourful food- semantics be damned. So if you’re just commencing your journey into cooking, or have been cooking for a while and want to understand it better so you can cook better and more consistently, I can’t recommend this book enough. Sure, it’s focused primarily on Indian cooking (and God knows we needed it), but what sets it apart is its insistence on guidelines and frameworks. It’s not a book full of recipes (even though it does have a quite a few). But rather, it’s teaching you how to fish, so you can catch that damn fish whether you go to a lake, a river or an ocean. Get cooking. Get this book. Your tongue will thank you. ## Frequently Bought Together - Masala Lab: The Science of Indian Cooking - The Science of Spice: Understand Flavor Connections and Revolutionize Your Cooking - Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.vn/products/240262295-masala-lab-the-science-of-indian-cooking-the-bestseller-on](https://www.desertcart.vn/products/240262295-masala-lab-the-science-of-indian-cooking-the-bestseller-on) --- *Product available on Desertcart Vietnam* *Store origin: VN* *Last updated: 2026-05-20*