Why Nobel Laureate Abhjit Banerjee recommends cooking the kabuli pullao from his new cook-book in Gabbar's den

Radio Finely Chopped by Kalyan Karmakar

Folks far more accomplished and adept than me have written about the exemplary work of Professor Abhijeet Banerjee. I won't make any attempts to do so. I know my limits.

In 2019 Banerjee was the co- winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics. #nuff said as the kids say these days.

What you might not know, is that Abhijit da (this is what I settled on after I asked him 'should I call you Mr Banerjee, Abhijit or Abhijit da') has been cooking since the age of 15. Primarily because his mother, Nirmala Banerjee (nee Patnakar), was a feminist. No, no. She was not against women cooking. She was a great cook with a wide repertoire of dishes. Her work led her to travel a lot though which meant that Abhijit da and DB were left in the hands of the family cook. "He was a good cook, but had a limited range and hence I entered the kitchen," says Abhijit da.

"I continue cooking till date. I cook everyday. I find it a great way of unwinding and putting behind whatever happened that day."

Abhijit da has come out with a cookbook called 'Cooking To Save Your Life.'

Demystifying cooking is a key purpose behind writing 'Cooking to Save your life,' says Abhijit da.

"We wanted to move away from the picture perfect world of recipe television and talk about real life cooking instead," said Abhijit da. His associate and illustrator, Cheyenne Olivier, uses geometrical designs to show each dish. They encourage you to create your path instead and feel good about it.

The book can be divided into two sections. The short section introductions, where Abhijit da gently slips in some of his socio-economic beliefs such as the need to redefine what non-vegetarian means in the Asian context and the need to look beyond basmati and seek out indigenous grains such as millets and seasonal rice; and the relevance of both in the context of sustainability..

The other, constituting the bulk of the book, are his recipes. These cover multiple genres reflecting the distinguished and colouful path that his life has traversed. Each preceded by a tongue in cheek scenario where Abhijit da lets the aspiring humourist in him loose.

Do watch our chat till the end to figure out why Abhijit da recommends cooking his kabuli pullao in Gabbar's den.