My name is Karin Chawla and I live in Bengaluru in southern India, with my husband, Prem, daughter, Tara Maria and our 2 felines, Mr Bing and Princess Tiger Lily.

I am a Dame de la Chaîne and a partner with Video Post which is a film-making outfit where I take care of the content writing, film shoots and financial matters.

If I were to describe my family in one word, it’s “foodies”.  To be fair, we are very discriminating when it comes to our food. Everything salted perfectly and spices spot on or there will be a lot of grumbles!

When India locked down, the first thing we did was to stock up with what each of us would like to eat. Then we proceeded to sort everything into portion sizes to freeze or marinade depending on the shelf life.

As the reminders about World Chaîne Day began to arrive we needed to do a lot of special things to commemorate the event that would otherwise have been celebrated in grandeur by the local Bailliage.

So, we chose to celebrate over the whole weekend! I chilled two bottles of “bubbles” that we had saved for special occasions.

One was a favourite of ours, Chandon Cuvée Riche that we had brought back from the Chandon estate in Coldstream (Victoria), Australia, on a recent visit.

The second was a Chandon Délice from Mendoza, Argentina, that we bought recently in Bengaluru to celebrate a birthday. We made honey water and picked herbs from our pots to prepare mead and other drinks to go with our meals.

Prem’s family originated in Sindh, Pakistan, so I thought I would make some food special to that region much to his delight. Tara decided to make a deconstructed Pavlova using fresh mango that is in season at the moment. Our Post Office delivers it to order!

We had the most fun cooking, tasting, and dining! What a strange but perfect celebration of the gourmet in each of us! The pictures tell the full story.