62 6 august 2018memoir chroni-
cles the author’s life
until the moment
of writing it. it is about what
created a sense of belonging,
what induced dissonance,
and most importantly,
what the author distilled
from these experiences. in
a food memoir, the author’s
travails, successes and
epiphanies are intimately
linked to what he or she ate,
and what the process by
which the food arrived on the table taught her about herself.
Barbara Frey Waxman defines the genre as ‘a culinary memoir
that chronicles the growth and development of the memoirist
through the lens of food memories, in narratives that either
begin with childhood or that interpose frequent flashbacks to
earliest formative experiences’.
Globally, the travel memoir was all the rage in the 70s and
80s—think Bruce Chatwin (Songlines is one of my favourites),
Paul Theroux (The Great Railway Bazaar), eric Newby (Slowly
Down the Ganges), and Naipaul (all his travel books)—but the
food memoir has taken its place in the past two decades. Start-
ing with Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, followed
by ruth reichl, Gabrielle Hamilton and a host of others, the
trend is slowly making its way to india. madhur Jaffrey was
a pioneer (Climbing the Mango Tree), as was Chitra Banerjee
Divakaruni’s fictionalised Mistress of Spices. Unlike the food
memoirs which shoot to the top of a New York Times best-
seller list, this genre has a small but gradually growing niche
readership in india. A survey published in The Paris Review
shows that indians read for 10.4 hours per week per person, as
compared to only half that time spent by their American and
UK counterparts. The reason, i think, is that those who read
prefer other types of non-fiction or fiction—a Chetan Bhagat,
fantasy novels like those by an Amish Tripathi, romantic nov-
els, books about celebrities, spiritual gurus, self-help books,
etcetera. Those who read about food do so in a more instru-
mental way—read the restaurant reviews of amateur foodies
to find out which place to try out next. But a food memoir,
when written well, is a wonderful peek into the world and
lifestyle of someone different from you.
one of the aspects that interests me about a food memoir is
how the author’s forays into cooking dishes from recipes in-herited from her family evoke a sense of belonging, deepening
links with the family, the neighbourhood and the city.
Doreen Hassan’s Saffron and Pearls with the subtitle A
Memoir of Family, Friendship and Heirloom Hyderabadi Recipes,
is an ode to a city ‘we carry in our hearts wherever we go’. The
reminiscences of a Goan Christian who was brought up in
Secunderabad on Goan vegetarian food and seafood (but
no meat), married a scion of an old Hyderabadi family, the
Hassans—‘one of the first to boycott British goods and burn
their British possessions in a bonfire in front of the family
home, Abid manzil’—the book also has charming essays by
her husband, daughter (Anisha writes about her journey to
opening a restaurant in Goa), friends ( Sanjaya Baru writes on
his search for irani cafes, once ubiquitous in the city but not any
more), and staff.
Let me add to the praise showered on Doreen Hassan’s
culinary prowess. i am obsessed with biryani, and thus far, the
best gosht biryani and vegetarian biryani i have ever had has
been at her home. Think of fragrant rice, light as a cloud, yet
containing a depth of flavour that evokes memories of the old
city of Hyderabad.
A food memoir by an author who is also a great cook is
different from one by a gourmand who cannot cook, or who
can produce decent dishes but not ones that can be described in
superlatives. Not Doreen Hassan. Here is a lady whose hus-
band (who would ‘rather make a friend than watch a movie’)
impulsively invites 20 people for dinner that very day, and calls
her up while she is shopping at an exhibition and says that he
has ordered the meat for her to cook. The rest of us would have
panicked, but Doreen simply got on with it.
How do creators of such delectable dishes manage to cook
for large parties without having a breakdown? How do they
retain their poise? Here is her advice: ‘Be organized, play to
your strengths and keep it simple.’ equanimity comes from a
deep understanding of the craft. Cooking, in that way, is akin
to the precision involved in writing great prose. Think of com-
manding a Joseph Conrad or a VS Naipaul or a rachel Cusk
to compose an essay or a story in a few hours. They have the
ability to delve into the subject and write about it in a simple
yet nuanced way. Similarly, great cooks can rustle up the most
complex dishes by paring down the steps to create the essence
of the flavour.
A malai ka murg dish has chicken, fresh cream, water, oil,
onions red chilli powder and a paste of almonds, cashew nuts
and raisins. The cooking method involves frying onions,
then adding the ginger-garlic paste and chilli powder, thena moveable feast
By Shylashri Shankar
The Inheritance of Taste
The pleasures of feasting on food memoirs
A