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SECOND ANNUAL IAAC LITERARY FESTIVAL
in collaboration with The English Department, Hunter College (West Building) at 68th Street and Lexington Avenue
OCTOBER 22-25, 2015 |
| October 25th, 2015 - 2:15 – 3:15 pm |
Session 3A
The hot new genre of food writing
Authors: Suvir Saran, Vikas Khanna, Saransh Goila, Nandita Godbole
Moderator: Pia Padukone
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 Vikas Khanna - One of Vikas Khanna's favorite places in the world growing up was the garden he and his grandmother planted at their home in Amritsar, India. He would rush home from school to tend to the aromatic basil and cardamom, tomatoes, peas, and squash. His intimate knowledge of spices and produce would guide him on his journey to become the Michelin-starred chef at one of New York's most highly regarded Indian restaurants, Junoon. And this knowledge of nature's bounty and its seasons informs his inspiring and beautiful cookbook, in which vegetables are the star ingredients. Vegetables have always been integral to Indian cuisine, and Khanna's dishes expertly showcase their natural goodness, their flavor and color and hidden nuances. |
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 Indian Harvest - Classic and Contemporary Vegetarian Dishes, Khanna brings together traditional recipes, handed down over generations, alongside exciting new ones--for soups, salads, and starters; main courses; rice dishes and lentil dishes; breads; condiments; desserts; and drinks. Though the flavors are complex, the recipes are written to be simple and inviting, to encourage seasonal substitutions and experimentation. Vikas Khanna's love of food and culture, his enthusiasm and warm hospitality shines on every page. Bursting with 125 recipes and more than 200 color photographs from Michael Swamy and Khanna himself, Indian Harvest opens a new world of inspiration to vegetarians and omnivores alike. |
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 Suvir Saran - New Delhi-born chef Suvir Saran has nurtured a lifelong passion for the traditional flavors of Indian cooking to become an accomplished chef, cookbook author, and organic farmer.
As Executive Chef at Devi in New York City, Saran shares the flavors of Indian home cooking, earning three stars from New York magazine, two stars from The New York Times, and the only U.S. Indian restaurant to earn a Michelin star. Saran serves as Chairman of Asian Culinary Studies for The Culinary Institute of America and has participated in culinary festivals around the world.
Saran’s cookbooks include “Indian Home Cooking” (Clarkson Potter, 2004) and “American Masala” (Clarkson Potter, 2007). Saran was also the only U.S.-based contributor to the largest Indian cookbook ever published, “India Cookbook,” (Phaidon Press, 2010).
When not traveling, Saran and partner Charlie Burd live and care for American Masala Farm in upstate New York, with their heritage-breed animals and pets. |
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 Masala Farm - What happens when an Indian chef and consummate city dweller buys a farm in the country and endeavors to raise farm animals and grow vegetables? Delicious food, of course! From acclaimed chef and author Suvir Saran, Masala Farm offers a fresh twist on a farm-to-table approach to cooking and welcomes readers into the kitchen. A steady stream of houseguests, the challenges of animal ownership, and the joys of being a part of a small-town community supply the stories woven throughout this volume. Sixty recipes are organized by season. Exquisite photography captures the lusciousness of Saran's food and the beauty of the countryside. |
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 Saransh Goila is an Anchor and Chef Consultant for Food Food channel and has been a Food Columnist with Discover India magazine. He hosted India’s biggest food travelogue show ‘Roti, Rasta aur India’ where he set a record in Limca Book of Records, 2014 of being the first Indian chef to travel 20,000 kms by road in 100 days. He is currently hosting ‘The Spice Traveller’, an international food travelogue exclusively designed for the web. Saransh was a food enthusiast at an early age, making his first Jalebi for his family at the age of 12. Graduating from Institute of Hotel Management, Saransh got a degree in BA Hons in Culinary Arts in 2008. |
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 India on my Platter - 100 days, 100 cities, 25 states, 20000 kms on the road & one Chef Saransh takes us on a culinary journey through rural India, meeting local foodies, learning about their cuisine and creating meals using the tips he learned. Charming, humble and effortless this culinary cutie brings an element of appreciation to the people he meets and food he cooks, not taking anything for granted. From a roadside truck stop to a kitchen in Kullu - this book covers it all. This book contains recipes not atypical of the Indian Kitchen: images of food snapshots of villages and villagers, interesting ways to use locally found ingredients, humorous and touching anecdotes from his journey, and a bit of wisdom that can only be discovered by travel. |
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 Nandita Godbole, MSc., M. Landscape Arch. A native of India, Nandita is an emerging indie author, who had once only dabbled in creative writing. After a decade in the USA as a student, designer and independent researcher, a homesick Nandita rediscovered true her passions: her cultural and culinary traditions. She launched Curry Cravings™ to showcase the dynamic Indian culture and cuisine and also channel her private exploration of self-identity. Her cooking classes evolved into a successful supper club in Georgia (2005). Encouraged, Nandita crowd sourced support for her first cookbook: A Dozen Ways to Celebrate, giving tangible form to a tapestry of culinary knowledge and oral histories, delighting readers who welcomed its illustrative style, photography and poignant narration. Through both her written and culinary endeavors Nandita remains an enthusiastic advocate for the Indian culture, bridging gaps between its perception and ‘consumption.’ A keen observer, she inquires about cultural overlays on our personal and social environments. She orchestrates dining events setting the stage for such dialogues, asking how and where ‘ethnic’ and personal ideologies collide with convention. Whether it is dinner or chai, her blog segment \'Kitchen Island’ or cookbooks, Nandita crafts holistic food and conversation for both mind and body. |
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 A Dozen Ways to Celebrate - Twelve Decadent Indian Feasts for the Culinary Indulgent is an incredible Kickstarter success story, presenting the Indian cuisine both as an exquisite and refined, yet achievable celebration of flavors. It includes twelve unique, themed, tried and tested menus from Nandita’s past supper club gatherings. This detailed cookbook shows enthusiasts how to make Indian dishes using many commonplace grocery store ingredients. Nandita’s cookbook is practical and includes everything from menu planning worksheets for a large party to simpler menus for quick family dinners. A Dozen Ways to Celebrate continues to reach bookshelves, e-readers and kitchens across USA, Canada, Germany, UK, China, Australia, Russia, UAE and even India. Replete with more than 120 recipes and accompanying photographs, it includes personal notes to engage the reader, making it both an enjoyable coffee table read and a helpful kitchen companion. Nandita’s teaching and writing style inspires even novice chefs with realistic confidence. It effortlessly reveals how Indian cuisine can be a flavorful, decadent and healthier choice for many diners. Nandita had started this book as a written legacy for her daughter, but these feasts and stories will undoubtedly be devoured by chefs, diners and readers alike. |
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 Pia Padukone is the author of the acclaimed novel Where Earth Meets Water. Pia and her husband maintain a reading and eating blog, Two Admirable Pleasures: she reads, he cooks, they both eat. A finalist in Seventeen Magazine’s Fiction Writing Contest, and most recently a winner of the Women on Writing Flash Fiction Contest, Pia has written for Star News and the Associated Press (UK). Pia’s second novel, The Faces of Strangers, is the story of two families in Tallinn, Estonia and New York City, whose lives are forever changed by their participation in a high school student exchange program. The Faces of Strangers will be published in April 2016 by Harlequin Mira. |
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