Bengal menus return to roots, lost recipes on Poila Baisakh

Kolkata: In Bengali homes, recipes lived in memory, in the rhythm of hands, in the smell of mustard oil and the aroma of coconut paste. And many were cooked and savoured in the peak of summer when Nababarsha was celebrated. The tradition has waned over the years as families now prefer a feast at a restaurant. But many of these recipes are being rediscovered through social media and by digging into family recipe books.Dishes that had disappeared from family kitchens are now appearing in reels and posts. Panta bhaat, ilish bhapa, kochur bhorta and lau pata bhorta are being cooked again, often accompanied by stories of Noakhali, Dhaka or Faridpur. "Revival efforts have always been there, but now social media helps. Everyone posts their home recipes, inspiring others," said Rohitaswa Guho, a Kolkata-based home cook with roots in pre-Partition East Bengal. "There is a lot of work happening around lost recipes in Bengali cuisine. Bhorta platters, shutki dishes and small fish preparations are being served across cloud kitchens. Spiegel, a restaurant, hosted panta festival, bringing what was once considered poor man's food into a curated dining experience," said chef Bhaskar Dasgupta. Even legacy restaurants like Oh! Calcutta are revisiting regional recipes. "For many, this isn't just food, it's a way to reconnect with roots," said Anjan Chatterjee, an enthusiast of Bengali cuisine and owner of Specialty Restaurants that own Oh! Calcutta. A variety of rustic bhortas — from begun bhorta and tomato bhorta to chingri and kancha aamer bhorta — are being served at Bengali cuisine restaurant Chaudhury & Co on the Bengali New Year. "These bring back familiar flavours and seasonal ingredients," said owner and cuisine expert Shiladitya Chaudhury."We are probably the last generation with a living connection to pre-Partition East Bengali cuisine, or the forgotten recipes of north Kolkata. If we don't document and cook these recipes now, we risk losing an entire cultural archive," said Dasgupta. Home cooks are at the centre of this movement. "Recipes that once stayed within families are now reaching people worldwide," says Singapore-based home chef Arpita Das. "We have always concentrated on other forms of art but neglected culinary art despite it being the only art form that needs all five senses to experience and appreciate," said Subhojit Bhattacharyya, co-founder of ‘Lost & Rare Recipes', which has been documenting Bengal's culinary history through a YouTube channel. "Old recipes in Bengal go much beyond ‘Pakrajeswar' (1831) by Mehtab Chand, arguably the first-ever published Indian cookbook, Bipra Das Mukhopadhyay's ‘Pak Pranali' (1886) and ‘Mistanna Pak' (1904), and ‘Barendra Randhan' (1921) by Kiranlekha Roy," added Bhattacharyya.
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