House flipper amaranth variety
My problem was that most cookbooks live in a void and there is no reality or connection with people’s lives. It is perhaps fitting that his latest release is a cookbook published by Juggernaut Books with a wonderfully tongue-in-cheek title and dreamy illustrations by Cheyenne Olivier called Cooking to Save Your Life. In an earlier interview, he had said, “I get bored easily and I must take time out in the day to do things I like,” and foremost in this list was cooking, an activity that Banerjee carves out time for on a daily basis. Yet, as the evening lengthens over a cup of Darjeeling tea, Kolkata becomes a chapter in the pastiche of places that are part of his stories about food, vegetables, economics and life-a good life in particular. Bought from a local vendor at the corner of Ballygunge Circular Road in Kolkata, Banerjee’s thrill at this bounty is no different from that of the average Bengali man who comes home from his daily market run with the season’s first shak (greens) or a still-gasping-for-air giant catla (carp).
For him, Bengal’s fresh, seasonal produce is not just a matter of course but a thing to be discovered time and again that is rooted in his philosophy on buying, cooking and eating mindfully. It is a rare occasion when one gets to see a Nobel Laureate waxing eloquent about a humble loot of tender green amaranth and raw papaya still fresh with sap from the tree.
But before that, there are the vegetables.