Being invited to collaborate at Le Cordon Bleu London — the institution at the centre of classical culinary education — was a moment I never quite imagined for myself when I was washing copper pans in a Pune kitchen at nineteen.

The demonstration evening focused on regional Indian technique through a Scottish lens: tempering, layering, the slow building of a sauce that tastes of memory rather than effort. The room asked the questions any serious cook would ask, and the conversation ran long past the scheduled time.

Le Cordon Bleu teaches you that technique is the floor, not the ceiling. What you build on top of it is your own.