Kerala is known for its diverse and flavorful cuisine, including dishes such as appam, puttu, dosa, avial, fish curry, and a wide variety of coconut-based preparations. For generations, many of these recipes were not written down. Instead, they were passed verbally from mothers to daughters and learned through everyday cooking at home. Ingredients, measurements, techniques, and small family variations were often remembered through practice rather than recorded in books. As a result, only a limited number of Malayalam cookbooks are available, especially from the period before 2000.
The Kerala Cookbook Project brings together information about some of these Malayalam recipe books published before 2000.
The project aims to identify, document, and preserve books that recorded Kerala’s home cooking, traditional recipes, ingredients, and culinary practices. Some of these books are still available, while others are difficult to find or known only through limited references. By creating a record of them, this blog hopes to make Kerala’s written culinary heritage easier to discover and encourage further interest in the recipes and food traditions preserved in these books.
N. Velupillai and the Story of Pachaka Chinthamani
N. Velupillai was officially appointed as an education officer in the Kottarakkara Taluk during the reign of His Highness Sri Moolam Thirunal Maharaja. During this period, the Maharaja’s government began establishing many Malayalam-medium schools, also known as vernacular schools. Home Science was introduced as a subject in the school curriculum, particularly in girls’ schools.
At that time, however, there were no official textbooks available for teaching the subject. The Education Department and its selection committee therefore decided to develop a curriculum and prepare suitable books for Home Science. Cooking was an important part of the subject.
N. Velupillai was not only an education officer but was also known as an excellent cook. Seeing the need for a proper book on cooking, he decided to compile a Malayalam cookbook during the 1890s. The result was Pachaka Chinthamani.
Pachaka Chinthamani is considered the first Malayalam cookbook published in Kerala.
The book was submitted to and approved by the educational selection committee, making it the only known Malayalam cookbook to have been officially selected as a textbook for the school curriculum. At the time, Home Science was taught mainly in girls’ schools.
A second edition of Pachaka Chinthamani was published in 1902. A few copies of this old edition can still be found in some libraries. Following the success of the book, N. Velupillai went on to publish other works on cookery. The original Pachaka Chinthamani mainly focused on vegetarian dishes. Later, in 1919, he published another cookbook titled Pachaka Lathika. In 1921, a further edition of Pachaka Chinthamani was published with a greater focus on non-vegetarian dishes.
N. Velupillai was married to Parvathi Amma, and they had a daughter named Kunju Lakshmi Amma. He assigned the copyright of his books to his wife and daughter, leaving them an important connection to his literary and culinary legacy.
