Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee’s new book marries social discourse and food into a thought-provoking read
What started as a gift to the intellectual City of Joy in 2010, expanded to form a community of like-minded readers over the past decade and a half. The 16th Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival curated by the century-old Oxford Bookstores is all geared up to engage the audience through powerful sessions and thought-provoking dialogues between January 10-12, 2025 at Allen Park, Park Street. With over 120 writers gracing the occasion, some of the notable names include Milind Soman, Ila Arun, William Dalrymple, Akshat Gupta, Anand Neelakantan, Anuja Chandramouli, Arunava Sinha, Ira Mukhoty, Kunal Basu, Pinaki De, and Prayaag Akbar to name a few.
Over the years, it has become a platform to foster free discussions between veteran and emerging writers and their readers; a community that starts a conversation on topics like reading habits, digital trends, health, fandom, climate crisis, art, sports and more. The Poetry Café cultivates the habit of reading, listening to and discussing poems in several languages while the Oxford Junior Literary Festival tries to cultivate the habit of reading in younger generations through author-based discussions and engaging activities. It has transcended from being just another literary festival to being an icon in the cultural milieu of Kolkata.
To create a lead-up to 16 edition next year, the Festival organised a curtain raiser with the launch of 2019 Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee’s latest book Chhaunk, a discourse on social topics through the eyes of food. We caught up with Banerjee to know more about the book, his comfort food recipe, and more.
Excerpts:
How did the idea of marrying food and social sciences come to you?
Food has always been a part of the social sciences. There is the economics of food, history of food, anthropology of food, etc. I am more using the fact that food is seen as a familiar and friendly topic to invite people into reading more social science
The book has an interesting cover. How does that signify the message you want to give through the book?
It is just one of the illustrations from the book. We chose it for the fact that it advertised well the tone of the book, which is meant to be light and inviting. The back cover was chosen to emphasize that the book tries to bring together the many Indias.
Could you shed some light on the name of the book?
Chhaunk, is a small amount of taste infused oil used to add spice and flavour to Indian food. We think the short essays in this book add spice and flavour to the public discourse on social and economic issues.
Do you have any milestone memories associated with food?
I remember the first time I really enjoyed food (other than candy, cakes and ice cream). We were in California, I was 4 and my mother had made some bhindi fry and chapatis, and I just loved the slight sweet of the caramelized onions and fried bhindi, combined with the bite from the spices.
How have you seen Kolkata grow in the socio cultural and culinary space over the years?
That is a hard question. We have more international food now and there are many more excellent Bengali restaurants. But our relation to Bengali food has changed and not always for the better. I never see delicacies like maanbata, kot-belerchatni, aad begun, shutki mach diye puishaager ghonto, and my fear is that they are being forgotten.
One food you cannot miss when in Kolkata.
I love the smaller fish—pabda, tangra, bacha, etc.d
One quick comfort food recipe
Akoori: Beat 4 eggs with one tablespoon water and ½ tsp jeera powder. Heat 2 tbs oil in a small fry pan and add 1/3 cup finely chopped onion. Soften the onion at medium low heat. Then set heat to low, add ½ cup cooked or frozen peas, one thinly sliced green chili, ½ cup chopped green coriander, ½ tsp salt and 1 tbs oil from mango or lime pickle. Scramble the egg and remove when it is mostly solid but still creamy (2 minutes).
If you had to cook for two other Nobel laureates who would they be and why?
Esther Duflo and Amartya Sen. They both love eating and appreciate effort put into it.
Two contemporary chefs whose work you admire
Let me instead name two younger chefs that deserve to be even better known: Manon Fleury from Datil in Paris and Pritam Bhadra from Annaja in Kolkata.
A food that you cook for Esther and vice versa, often
For Esther: stuffed karela. For me: pasta cacio pepe
Are you currently developing any ideas for another book?
Yes, with Esther and Michael Greenstone, on climate change.