Before the city forgets
The article reflects on the legacy of 'The Calcutta Cook Book' and its authors, who documented the city's diverse culinary history through oral accounts. It contrasts this deep, community-focused research with modern, superficial trends in food discovery.
Why it matters
It celebrates the preservation of intangible cultural heritage and the importance of documenting local histories before they are lost.
Last month, when I heard Bunny Gupta had died, I felt a pang. I did not know her. But I knew her byline from newspapers in Kolkata. Most of all, I knew her as one of the authors of a book I loved — The Calcutta Cook Book: A Treasury of Recipes from Pavement to Palace .
I had gifted the book to my mother. I had inscribed it thus: “Dear Ma, Remembering all the shudhu shudhu kheye nili, ebar bhaat-ta ki diye khaabi ?” My mother would say, “Oh, you ate that up just by itself, now what will you eat the rice with?”
The 1995 book, unlike modern cookbooks, did not come with glossy, droolworthy pictures of dishes. It went beyond the recipes. The authors talked to “elders in different groups of the city about their food philosophy and habits”.
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