Chitrita Banerji

Chitrita Banerji is one of the very few Indian food historians in the world. She specialises in Bengali cuisine, and is also an author, novelist and translator. Her work explores the relationship between memory, history, culture, religion and food.

Life

Banerji was born in 1947, and grew up in Calcutta (now Kolkata). Although she originates from West Bengal, she spent seven years living in Bangladesh (formerly East Bengal), thus developing a strong perspective on the distinct traditions of both parts of Bengal. Her love of reading inspired her to become a writer; and her mother's cooking and the food rituals associated with her family's Hindu faith influenced her writing.

At the age of 20 she went to Harvard where she did her Masters in English. She has settled in USA since 1990, and currently resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She has maintained strong a connection with India, travelling there regularly.

Career

Banerji has written for a number of publications, including the New York Times, Gastronomica, Gourmet and Granta. She has also presented papers at the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery. [1]

Works

Banerji has written several books on Indian - particularly Bengali - food, articles, short fiction, longer fiction (novels) and translations.

Food Books

• Life and Food in Bengal, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1991
• Bengali Cooking: Seasons & Festivals, Serif, 1997
• The Hour of the Goddess: Memories of Women, Food, and Ritual in Bengal, Seagull Books, 2001. Paperback edition by Penguin Books, 2006. New edition titled Feeding the Gods, published by Seagull Books, 2006
• Land of Milk and Honey: Travels in the History of Indian Food, Seagull Books, 2007
• Eating India: An Odyssey into the Food and Culture of the Land of Spices, Bloomsbury, 2007
• Contributor: The Oxford Companion To Sugar and Sweets, OUP USA, 2015

Awards and Honours

In both 1998 and 1999 she received an "additional award" in the Sophie Coe awards for writings on food history.