The Phone Call We Never Expected

Some moments are so unexpected that you spend the first few minutes convinced they can't possibly be real.

That's exactly how we felt when an Instagram message landed in our inbox from the team at Saturday Kitchen.

Our first thought?

"This has to be fake."

We replied anyway, and before long we realised it was very real. They were putting together a street food feature and wanted Mumbai Mix to be part of it.

It felt surreal.

We'd spent years serving customers from our market stall, and suddenly we were being invited to cook on one of the country's best-loved food programmes.

There was never much debate about what to cook.

It had to be our dosa.

By then, our dosas had become the dish people knew us for, served with the chutneys and flavours that had become part of Mumbai Mix.

The day before filming we travelled to the studio for rehearsals, where we met the presenters and the production team. From the very beginning they made us feel completely at ease. Everyone was so welcoming, and you could tell how much they cared about making the programme.

On the morning of filming we met Fleur East, who was just as lovely in person as she is on television.

One of the funniest parts of the day happened before we even stepped onto the set.

The three of us had our hair and makeup done.

None of us were used to anything like that, so we spent most of the time laughing with the hair and makeup team. They made the whole experience feel relaxed and enjoyable, and by the time we walked into the studio, it felt much more like spending the day with friends than appearing on national television.

When the cameras started rolling, it was the three of us cooking together, just as we always had.

Mum led the cooking with the calm confidence she always brings to the kitchen. Dimple and I were alongside her, sharing the food we'd spent years making together.

One moment still makes us laugh today.

Matt Tebbutt asked Mum if she could make the dosa a "10 out of 10" for spice.

Mum smiled.

She took it as a challenge.

Let's just say it was definitely a ten.

Watching everyone's reactions in the studio was priceless, and it's still one of the moments people mention to us when they recognise us from the programme.

Dad wasn't on camera, but he was there throughout the day, quietly cheering us on from behind the scenes. The Saturday Kitchen team even joked about the "proud dad behind the scenes," and they couldn't have described him better.

After filming, we all went out for dinner together.

It gave us a chance to finally relax, laugh about everything that had happened and take in what we'd just experienced.

The best part came afterwards.

Every year, when the episode is shown again around Mother's Day, new people discover Mumbai Mix for the first time. Some even travelled to our market stall after watching us that morning because they wanted to try the dosas for themselves.

That never stopped feeling special.

One of the producers even told us they'd love to have us back one day.

We'd love that too.

Not because it's television, but because it would be another opportunity to share our family's cooking with people who have never experienced it before.

When we look back on that day, we don't remember the cameras first.

We remember laughing with the hair and makeup team.

We remember Mum turning the spice up to ten.

We remember Dad smiling from behind the scenes.

Most of all, we remember standing together as a family, doing what we've always loved doing.

Cooking.