Food writer, restaurant consultant and chef Karen Anand's. New book Masala Maimai published by Pam Macmillan Maps. Karen's culinary journey across Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra and West, Bengali. Highly accepted as one of India's first food gurus, Karen has been at the forefront of the international food revolution in the country. In addition to writing extensively on the subject of food and wine for over 30 years, she has also set up a gourmet food products business under her own brand
Karen Anand
@karen2305 · 1:47
Hi. TSTA. Oh, sorry, Ramya. Sorry. I was just talking about teasta and I forgot to record this. So I wrote the book during Lockdown in 2020, and I think I needed, I needed to do this for myself was a bit cathartic. I also felt that I've been collecting many, many cookery books, food writing books by MFK. Fisher. Claudia Rodin, ruth Reichl, nigel Slater
Thank you so much for that. Karen, your book takes the reader along an expansive journey along the culinary landscape of Kerala, Gujarat, Goa, Maharashtra and West Bengal. Is there one chapter or one specific part of the book that you enjoyed writing more than the others? And why?
Karen Anand
@karen2305 · 2:43
I think every single chapter I enjoyed writing gujarat was a challenge because it's a completely vegetarian chapter. And also what was challenging was to make the recipes doable. It's very easy to write down recipes, but if people can't follow them so had to take out a lot of recipes. For example, certain biryani's or certain luck nai dishes because they were just simply too complicated for anybody to attempt
The current trend of cooking contests, foodstagram and YouTube cooking vlogs have made food assume a multiplicity of meanings with great expressive potential and content value. Food trends are fuelled and validated on social media. Media and food. Media caters to everyone from complete beginners in the kitchen to celebrity chefs, from foodies to those who find pleasure in watching victories and mishaps in cooking contests, and from food into influences to those who delight in bending the boundaries of cooking. Would you say that this is a good thing?
Karen Anand
@karen2305 · 3:22
So I don't call myself a chef. And I feel that you have to spend at least ten years in the industry, or working very hard as a chef in a hotel or a restaurant to be able to call yourself a chef. So that's number one. Number two, I think the digital landscape has changed a lot. And of course, you get young people who call themselves chef and then post every day on Instagram, for example, many, many recipes, which are very good
Karen Anand
@karen2305 · 3:40
I know that sounds crazy for anyone who's watching Cholesterol or thinks it comes from egg yolks, but it's really for four people. Anand it's very simple. You take some vegetables, or you take some vegetables you roasted earlier. You can chop up an onion, garlic and potato very small, so you really need no special ingredients. Lots of garlic, onion, and a potato. And you saute that in olive oil, and it gets quite soft
Thank you so much, Karen, for this very insightful conversation and for giving us a glimpse of what went behind Masala Maim Sah. I loved having this chat with you and would definitely love to have you back on well for more such conversations. So I'm going to be sharing the Amazon link to the book here for our listeners to check out. Thanks again and all the best. More power to your words
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
Karen Anand
@karen2305 · 0:16
And thank you, Ramya, for giving me this opportunity to talk and understand a new medium. And, yes, hopefully the people will enjoy reading the book. And, yes, it's on Amazon already. Thank you so much. Bye