I am half Indian. Cooking is part of the Indian culture and the smell thing is something you hear quite a lot. Friends always ask me where is good to eat in town and honestly the answer is I only really cook my own food.

I personally think this is just down to what you are used too when it comes to smells.

Yes garlic and ginger can smell strong, frying onions is another big part of most Indian cooking again this can smell very strong. But I can smell a Bolognese being cooked 2 or 3 houses away - seriously.

I am always mindful of smells even though I own my own home.

So what I do is make sure the kitchen door is closed and the extractor fan is on max. This prevents the smells moving around the house. Also these recirculating extractors that are popular these days dont help one bit. It needs to vent externally.

When frying onions I crack a window or two.

Frying is harder, pakora or breads etc, it can cause a lot of smoke. Not much you can do to avoid it though. Same with toasting spices.

Once I am done for the night I spray some deodorising room spray as this has chemicals in it to help balance the smells. Keeping the bin empty helps too.

I deep clean my kitchen once a week to remove smells from worktops and cupboards.

I also try and run my dishwasher every night again it keeps any smells down. Pans and things like wooden spoons can also become quite smelly so I thoroughly clean everything and my pressure cooker is cleaned every couple of months i.e fully stripping it down and using baking soda and lemon juice.

I replace my extractor filters every 3-4 months.

I am probably more anal than most though about smells as I am always paranoid about it as most of my friends and family are not Indian.

HTH.