The couple stir large pots of payasam, a traditional dessert, which fills the theatre with the smell of cardamom.
At the end of the performance, the combination of southern Indian sights, sounds and scent is completed with an actual taste of the sweet dessert.
Festival creative director Carla van Zon first saw The Kitchen in 2013, while it was being workshopped in Bangalore, India.
She said the director's other shows had been popular in New Zealand.
"Roysten Abel's The Manganiyar Seduction had a very warm reception from audiences at the 2013 festival, and like that show, The Kitchen reflects what is happening in the arts and theatre in India."
She said it also reflected a diaspora, uniting and infusing the traditional with the contemporary.
"It's important that the festival shows different works such as these so audiences can see the world through the eyes of artists who come from other places and lives."
More than 1000 artists have been involved at this year's arts festival, which features 100 shows at 800 venues throughout greater Auckland.
Many shows sold out - including New Zealand play The Mooncake and the Kumara, and Lady Sings the Blues - a concert tonight which showcases the talents of top women vocalists from New Zealand paying tribute to the songs of Billie Holiday.
The South Auckland performance of Othello: The Remix sold out, but 300 tickets bought by an anonymous donor meant kids could be bussed to Takapuna to see the rap-meets-Shakespeare show at the Bruce Mason Centre.
And on Saturday, White Night saw free visual art, dance, music, poetry and video events from early evening to midnight at more than 100 venues and locations from Devonport to Otara, Titirangi to the CBD.
Other shows on tonight's agenda include the biographical comedy Bravo Figaro!, family play The Book of Everything, and live music and circus crossover Limbo.
On the web
aucklandfestival.co.nz
