Chitrita Banerji is a

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

Indian cuisine Indian cuisine consists of a variety of regional and traditional cuisines native to India. Given the diversity in soil, climate, culture, ethnic groups, and occupations, these cuisines vary substantially and use locally available spices, he ...

. She specialises in

Bengali cuisine Bengali cuisine ( bn, বাঙ্গালী রন্ধনপ্রণালী) is the culinary style of Bengal, a region in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent encompassing Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura ...

, and is also an author, novelist and translator. Her work explores the relationship between memory, history, culture, religion and food.

Biography

Banerji was born in 1947, and grew up in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

(now Kolkata). She originates from West Bengal, but spent seven years living in Bangladesh (formerly East Bengal). At the age of 20 she went to

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

where she did her master's degree in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

. She has lived in the USA since 1990. She currently lives in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...

, traveling back to India regularly. Banerji has written for a number of publications, including ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', ''Gastronomica'', ''Gourmet'' and ''Granta''.

Works

Banerji is the author of several books: * ''Life and Food in Bengal'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1991 (later abridged as ''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

Awards and honours

In 1998 and 1999 she received an "additional award" in the

Sophie Coe Sophie Dobzhansky Coe (July 7, 1933 – May 25, 1994) was an anthropologist, food historian, and author, who studied the history of chocolate. Early life and education Sophie Dobzhansky's parents, Natalia Sivertzeva and Theodosius Dobzhansky, th ...

awards for writings on food history.

Biography

Works

Awards and honours

References

Further reading