Sometimes stories don’t begin with a pen, they begin with a person. Half-Baked Love was born from one such encounter — a chance meeting with a traditional chef during my travels to Lucknow. His quiet dedication to recipes passed down for generations, the way he spoke about food as though it carried memory, loss, and longing, stayed with me long after. In his eyes I saw more than just craft; I saw restraint, secrets, and a hunger for connection that words often fail to descri