Writer Colleen Taylor Sen speaks to Sapna Sarfare regarding her latest book Feasts and Fasts: A History of Food in India which reveals Indian cuisine like no other book.
Much has been written about Indian cuisine. Yet, not all
these books & their authors can claim to be an authority on the subject. Colleen
Taylor Sen is an exception. A Canadian-American translator & author,
Colleen has written vastly on Indian cuisine including 6 books. Despite her
Slavic Studies educational background, it is her prolific writing on different
topics she is renowned for.
Her latest book, Feasts and Fasts: A History of Food in India
explores Indian cuisine keeping in mind India’s religious, social and other
growth, along with topics like vegetarianism, street food, festivals &
food, and so on. Colleen speaks about this project which puts focus on Indian
cuisine once again.
A lot is always being
spoken about Indian cuisine. How does your book differ in that sense?
Despite the growing surge of interest in Indian cuisine and
history, the only other comprehensive work on the subject is the late K.T.
Achaya’s wonderful book Indian Food,
written over 20 years ago in 1994, and followed by his Historical Dictionary of Indian Food (1998). By contrast, dozens of
books have been written on the history of other national cuisines. Achaya’s
book covers the food of certain regions in depth, especially his native
Karnataka, but devotes less attention to other cuisines such as Bengali,
Assamese and tribal cuisines. I know that my own book has similar shortcomings
and hope that many other people are inspired to write histories of not just
Indian cuisine but their regional and even local cuisines, drawing upon
original sources.
What are the aspects
of the book which will tempt food lovers and readers alike?
The book has a lot of anecdotes, historic recipes, and even
poems. My favorites include an ode to ghee from the Rig Veda and a whimsical
argument among leafy vegetables about which is the superior in a 16th
century Sanskrit treatise called the Ksemakutuhalam
(Diet and Wellbeing.). Feasts and Fasts
is also lavishly illustrated with photographs and paintings.
How tough was it to
write a book like this considering the sheer vastness of the cuisine?
 |
| Colleen Taylor Sen |
It was very challenging. I have been writing about Indian
food for over 30 years and accumulated a lot of material in the process,
but it still required a great deal of
research. It took me three years to write it. I was limited to translations
into English but on occasion asked native speakers, such as my husband who is
Bengali and a friend who is a professor of Sanskrit for help. Some of the
existing translations are poor because the translators were not cooks and
didn’t know how to translate culinary terms.
Any aspect(s) which
surprised or amused you?
I was surprised by many things. Some people think that Kebabs
came with the Mughals, but in fact, meal grilled on skewers over a fire goes
back thousands of years to Vedic times. Also, in classical Ayurvedic medicine,
meat and even alcohol was part of some cures. As an 11th century
Ayurvedic physician wrote, “The recommendations of medicine are not intended to
help someone achieve virtue (dharma). What are they for, then? They are aimed
at achieving health.”
Your educational
background is different from what you write currently. How did the process
towards writing on food start?
Although my educational background is in Slavic languages, I
was familiar with the techniques of scholarly research and writing and this was
very helpful. I started writing about Indian food for newspapers and magazines
in the United States decades ago, when very few people were doing so, and
eventually adopted a more scholarly approach to the subject by writing several
books.
Has your foray into
writing about Indian food come from the fact that you are married to an Indian?
It very much comes into it. My husband is Bengali and has
been very interested in food since childhood. His late mother Arati Sen was a
well known Bengali journalist who wrote a widely-read column in the magazine
Desh under the pen name Srimati. She wrote a lot about food and even introduced
me to the late Kundal Lal Gujral, founder of the iconic Moti Mahal
restaurant.
Indian food still has
not reached the global status. As an authority on Indian cuisine, what do think?
That is a very good and much debated question which
Professor Krishnendu Ray explores in his recent book Ethnic Food. In the United Kingdom, Indian food is, of course, very
popular both as an everyday food and as haute cuisine. London alone has several
Michelin-starred Indian restaurants. In the United States, Indian food is less
popular. One reason is that India is less familiar to Americans than to the
British for whom it is part of their history. Another is that other cuisines
have long gained a popular foothold in the U.S., especially Chinese, Mexican
and Thai. I believe that one way Indian food will become more popular here is
via street food both in food trucks and restaurants that serve Kathi Rolls and
other wraps, Bhelpuri, and similar dishes.
Colleen Taylor Sen’s
latest book Feasts and Fasts: A
History of Food in India is out in
the market. Visit her website www.colleensen.com for more information on her and her work.
Feasts and Fasts: A History of Food in India
AUTHOR: Colleen
Taylor Sen
PUBLISHER: Reaktion
Books
PUBLISHED: January
2015
GENRE: Food,
History, Culture
LANGUAGE: English
PRICE: Rs
562
PAGES: 352
