Cookbooks don't sell if you aren't a celebrity writing them," said the CEO of a large publishing house when B Ramakrishnan first tried publishing a manual of standardised One Pot, One Shot (OPOS) recipes a few years ago. When he argued that it wasn't a cookbook, but a revolution in the making, she yawned, called for coffee and said, "I do this when the maid does not come. Just put everything in a cooker and finish cooking fast." The Chennai-based man decided to self-publish the book. It went on to become an international bestseller.

When Ramki—as he is fondly called—launched the OPOS compatible kit in collaboration with a kitchen appliance company, everything they manufactured got sold out. It still does. OPOS refers to a patented flash cooking style that uses a standard pot or cooker, knife, blender, grater, measuring cups and spoons. It expects the cook to align ingredients in a set fashion and use only standardised recipes so that the results are the same, anywhere, anytime. The recipes are available on United by Food, a Facebook group that Ramki heads.