The Calcutta Kitchen

By Udit Sarkhel and Simon Parkes

Book Overview

"What you've got to remember about us Bengalis," a good friend once told Simon Parkes, "is that we're only really interested in three things: educating our children, reading books, and food." Bengalis have a passion for good food--its authenticity, its freshness, its part in social occasions, and the pleasure of serving it at the table. The Calcutta Kitchen captures the essence of those pleasures through the evocative narrative of the BBC Food Programme's Simon Parkes, the recipes of renowned chef Udit Sarkhel, and the pictures of award-winning photographer Jason Lowe. Calcuttans know and adore fish, vegetables, and desserts in particular. They have a curiosity about food that never fades, and so they have embraced influences from around the world--most notably the English, Armenians, Jews, Tibetans, Chinese, Burmese, and Portuguese. Calcutta, and this book, has a taste of each of these cuisines. Until recently it was nigh-on impossible to taste Bengali cooking unless you were invited to a private home, yet this is some of the most sophisticated food in India. With its inexhaustible roll-call of fish and vegetables, its pungency derived from the widespread use of mustard (both seeds and oil) and its tempering with a blend of five spices known as panch phoron, it is an evolved yet accessible cuisine. The Calcutta Kitchen brings you recipes from one of the best-known Bengali chefs, Udit Sarkhel, and snapshots of the fish ponds, markets, artisan food producers, restaurants, clubs, cooks, gourmet, and street foods that play a part in the city's rich culinary culture.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1566566711
• ISBN13: 9781566566711
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Interlink Books
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 2.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 8.2" x 10.2"

Customer Reviews

Good

Its a good book. It does not have all the Bengali recipies but the ones are there are mostly for Non-Bengalis. Over all the choice of recipes are world class and Pictures are great. I love it. :)

Fishy food

Indian restaurants in the US typically deliver good Indian food but more generic than regional. After a recent visit to Bengal and eating food in friends' homes I was stunned with the flavors and materials used. Bengali cooking is very fishy - they use lots of fresh water and sea water fish daily. Most "curries" in India restaurants in the US are chicken, lamb or shrimp, but this book has given me some exciting fish recipes to try out. Some of them have turned out to be pretty much as I had eaten in Kolkata. Filled up with interesting stories of the Raj and more recent times, a great book to cook from and to learn from.

Nice informative book

What I love the most in this book is the photographs. Pictures of very simple day to day life have been portrayed with artistic skill. Now coming to the recipes--- The recipes included here are those that all "Calcuttans" would love (specially kathi roll/doi machh etc). Although I did miss some recipes which I was looking for, the book includes quite some recipes of food preferred there in Calcutta during rituals and celebrations. I have to admit the author spent a lot of time and energy on this book to make it attractive and useful.