It’s only on page 185, roughly halfway through Cooking for my firefly, that Malvika Singh gets down to the business of recipes. Until then, the cookbook memoir traverses dinner parties and buffets, cocktails and special occasions, high-ranking officials and custodians of culture.

Describing herself as a “professional dilettante”, Cooking is the second of Singh’s trilogy of memoirs. The first, Saris of Memory memorialized her life one sari at a time. This one is told through food, or to be more precise through entertaining.

“I was brought up to believe that life and good living, at work and after work, was about engaging with people, participating actively in conversation, sharing ideas over a meal of appetizing, wholesome food,” writes Singh, an author and publisher.

The firefly in the title is a reference to her husband, Tejbir or Jugnu as his friends call him (Jugnu translates to firefly in English). The memoir continues with the philosophy of the good life through good food and mindful entertaining. Of course there is privilege—prime minister Indira Gandhi drops in for dinner; impromptu meals could include 50 or more at few hours notice; and sit-down dinners are planned with three courses and a dessert and, equally important, seating plans that might encourage better conversation.

The book, Singh makes clear, is written with legacy in mind. At 76, the daughter of Raj and Romesh Thapar who founded the influential Seminar and daughter-in-law of Sujan Singh who built much of modern Delhi, says she began writing her memoirs “in order to........

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