New Delhi, June 14 -- Last week, while I was in Mumbai, my wife sent me a photograph of a steak with chimichurri sauce. It had been made, apparently in 15 minutes, by our 16-year-old daughter.

Now, I've never made a steak, just one of those things I've been meaning to do for years. Plus, there's the hassle of trying to find a good steak in these uncertain times. While I was away, all that got sorted out.

I should leave town more often.

Her mother, a vegetarian, not only found a good steak but now authoritatively says that an undercut is best. For this column, the daughter replicated the steak and gave me, a veteran cook of 40-odd years, a personalised class, impatiently rushing me through steps that I hesitated with, such as using butt...