Category Archives: Reviews

Mail Today and Indian Restaurant Spy, December 27, 2016 BOOK DETAILS CHILLIES AND PORRIDGE: WRITING FOOD By Mita Kapur HarperCollins India; Rs 499 STAR RATING: ***1/2 MOST people pigeonhole food writing into restaurant reviews and cookbooks, even as the latter stare into obsolescence because of the mushrooming of cookery websites and recipe-sharing groups on Facebook. There’s however a “distinguished strand of literature”, not so much from India as from Europe and North America, that explores food experiences, food history, food […]

Rediff, December 21, 2015 Mita Kapur has an irresistible love affair… and she’s willing to do anything to keep it going. When we talk about the F-word, we mean food. Nothing can stand between Mita Kapur and her first love. She can do anything for it, even pen a droolworthy book or two. More importantly, she’s always looking for a bite to eat 🙂 She’s candid about her love for food. “A crisp malpua made at home cannot be matched […]

Culture Cravings, December 19, 2015 Almost everyone I know, has at least one or more memories related with food. If I talk about myself, it would probably be the time when I was in standard ninth, coming up with a tastefully decorated salad which nobody ate because it looked so pretty, that no-one felt like disturbing the plate. I didn’t know whether to feel offended or not! A couple of days ago, I attended the book launch of Chillies and […]

The Telegraph, December 18, 2015 CHILLIES AND PORRIDGE: WRITING FOOD (HarperCollins, Rs 499) edited by Mita Kapur makes up for the lack of serious literature on culinary habits and practices. It brings together a number of noted scholars, journalists and writers in an effort to reconsider the ways in which food affects our lives. Bachi Karkaria shows how food is used to define the identities of communities, as of Parsis or Bengalis. Chitrita Banerji’s delightful piece on the Bengali bonti […]

Hindustan Times, December 18, 2015

Mid-day, December 13, 2015

The Financial Express, December 13, 2015 Chillies and Porridge Edited by Mita Kapur HarperCollins Pp 273 R499 Chillies and Porridge, at first glance, seems like just another book on food, albeit one with an attractive cover. But once you start flipping though it, you come across familiar names—writers, chefs, TV show hosts, journalists and many more. Chef Floyd Cardoz’s name beckons first, and the piece written by him is engrossing, pressing upon the idea of ‘fresh and local’. The next […]

The Shillong Times, December 13, 2015

Vogue, December 11, 2015 Mita Kapur’s ‘Chillies and Porridge: Writing Food’ paints a delectable tale with a beautiful collection of essays on food “For the uninitiated, porridge is a dish of ground, crushed or chopped cereal, boiled in milk or water, usually served hot. Admittedly, not quite the stuff fine-dining dreams are made of. Porridge is as unexotic as, well, porridge. Yet as trends come and go, this humble one-bowl meal trudges on, quietly filling bellies around the world first […]

Deccan Herald, December 10, 2015 What alarms me is that a lot of home cooking in terms of traditional Indian food is getting lost. I don’t see kadi chawal being made in houses so often,” exclaims Mita Kapur. “I feel that food unites and levels us whether socially or culturally, especially in a diverse country like ours where we have such inherent rich food traditions. Most of our food traditions are very scientific. There are multiple layers to the food […]