Writer-entrepreneur Karen Anand is not just a collector of recipes but a creator of beautiful dishes. What she does with equal flair is tell stories about food. Here she shares with Sucheta Dasgupta a few secrets of her trade.
Between being a cook, a social entrepreneur and a writer, which is the role with which you identify best?
I am a writer first because I was an academic first. I came back to India when I was in my early twenties. And in your early twenties you haven’t really formed your identity. I am a writer because that's what I do and I write about food. In my case, the advantage is that I also cook and I also research, and I'm also an entrepreneur. For me research is very important. When I used to write on wine, I have spent many hours with wine makers on wine estates. It is the same with food. I have been a cook, I have done restaurants, I have done menus for restaurants, I have conceptualised restaurants. Because I have done that and because there’s another hat I wore at one point when I did television, I also got the opportunity to do menu development for large companies, and because they liked what I did, I got more and more work. I worked for companies like HUL and Britannia, Rafael Salgado, Marico when they were developing foreign products, and I developed recipes to suit their product; for instance, I developed recipes with Britannia cheese, because cheese was still new in the Indian market in the 1990s. That was something I really enjoyed and it became something I did for a career. Very few people know that my mainstay for many years has actually been menu development and recipe development.
Which activity among these do you enjoy best?
Probably writing. Though I also love recipe development because I like to see success. For example, I did Nimbooz for Pepsi, as I had done the lemon drink for Jet Airways. I love to work with professionals and see how you can bring it all to fruition. I was a consultant on a project called Dishow Me London and it is still going strong!
What is your favourite recipe?
Oh no, there is no favourite, because I think food is mood, don't you? For example, if I am in Goa I want a plate of prawns or prawn curry, and I want my toes to be in the sand. I don't necessary want fine dining when I am on the beach. I love Japanese food. But we eat very simple Indian food when at home; there are no complicated sauces or curries. It's not something I really believe in. I have done it for Masala Memsahib because I have tried to document tradition and identity.
What is your favourite wine?
I like French reds. I spent a lot of time in France and there is a lovely young wine called brouilly. It is a very light, delicious red from Burgundy. I don't necessarily like big red wines. I don't drink them in India because I don't feel the climate is correct. I like certain whites. I like Pouilly-Fuisse and tend to go for French whites. I like champagne. I like Krug Champagne but I am not supposed to drink it too much because I have an issue with yeast. So I think it is champagne, followed by white and certain reds. Cocktails, too, are fun. I spent a while in Italy where they have the famous Bellini which is crushed peach in Prosecco. And then I had the most delicious one the other day, it is called Amaretto Sour. I am not a big whiskey drinker. Although I have just discovered recently a very nice whiskey called Brenne. It is a French whiskey. Now gin is made everywhere, so whiskey is being made everywhere as well. It is matured in cognac casks.
Can you tell us a little bit about Masala Memsahib?
I hadn’t really done a book on Indian food because I have been often credited with bringing European food to India and I did a lot of European food here in India initially in my career because that’s what I knew. But with my three TV shows I did travel a lot and I got to taste some fantastic Indian food throughout the country. I put them down on the back of envelopes, and I wrote the recipes of things I collected. So it is really a culmination of 30 years of work. I highlighted Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala and other faraway corners. There is a chapter at the back of the book called ‘Memorable Meals’. Here I have put in three of four fantastic meals in Ladakh, Assam and Chettinad, and the stories around them.
Why do you think organic farming is preferrable?
As we pollute our air, water and land, the ingredients become more and more important, be it vegetables or livestock. Now, there is this distinction between organic farming and pesticide-free farming. In organic farming, you have to declare a certain amount of land around your farm has not had pesticide. In small holdings this becomes very difficult. You don’t know what's happening on the farm next door. So people can’t get organic certification. And they decide to declare their products pesticide-free because at least they are pesticide-free on their land. They are not sprayed. When we had our farmers’ markets, we said the products were natural because we could not expect everyone to have the certification. We stopped the farmers’ market after Covid. We do need to start it again.
What is special about the Jaipur Literature Festival?
Well, JLF is the Rolls Royce of lit fests. It is the first lit fest, the only lit fest of the size, magnitude and organisation. There are a lot of copycats but no one is doing it as well.
Apart from yourself, which food writer is your favourite?
I like Claudia Roden very much. She is an Egyptian-British cultural anthropologist who writes fantastic books on Egyptian cookery, Mediterranean cookery and Jewish cookery. There are a few old writers. M.F.K. Fisher used to write very well. I like people who write stories about food, not just recipes.
