BY MANSI MOTWANI
LOS ANGELES, CA - ‘Kitchen Queens’, a community of cooking aficionados in Artesia is hosting an Author Meet-and-Greet on March 11 with Nandita Godbole. A native of Mumbai, India, Godbole is an indie cookbook author currently residing in Atlanta, Georgia. Her latest book ‘Not For You: Family Narratives of Denial &...
LOS ANGELES, CA - ‘Kitchen Queens’, a community of cooking aficionados in Artesia is hosting an Author Meet-and-Greet on March 11 with Nandita Godbole. A native of Mumbai, India, Godbole is an indie cookbook author currently residing in Atlanta, Georgia. Her latest book ‘Not For You: Family Narratives of Denial &...
Comfort Foods’ comes in two parts; Book One was released late last summer, Book Two will be released on March 8.
‘Not For You’ is the saga of 12 characters, spanning a timeframe of almost more than a century. Book One begins in 1857 and is set in 19th Century rural India. It traverses through the lives of 3 different couples, the choices they made (both for themselves and their children) and how those choices shaped their future. Stretching across 80 years, it ends in 1940, few years before India received independence from Great Britain. The story in Book Two resumes from where it was left off in Book One; the lives of the 3 families from different parts of the country converge in Book Two, which is set in urban India and towards the end, in the US at the onset of the 21st Century. What sets ‘Not For You’ apart from other books is the amalgamation of family folklore with traditional food recipes shared by the author at the end of every chapter. Staying true to her roots as a third-generation chef, Nandita has successfully managed to centralize the theme of cooking in ‘Not For You’, which she claims is a “food-novel”.
Godbole is a writer and a full-time author with several other cookbooks to her credit - ‘A Dozen Ways To Celebrate’, ‘Crack The Code’ and ‘Roti’ to name a few. She holds two Master’s Degrees,one in Economic Botany and the other in Landscape Architecture from the University of Mumbai and University of Illinois respectively.
Another feather in her cap is how she has worked to change the way people look at Indian food. Speaking to IJ she said “The Michelin-star style and level of cooking cannot be implemented by ordinary people in their daily lives. Palak Paneer, Butter Chicken, Naan still define ‘Indian food’ for many people; that’s still not something we eat everyday!” she exclaims. To make this change, she got involved with hosting small, private cooking events, and initiated a series of supper club dinners both in Atlanta and Los Angeles, which garnered immense appreciation from its attendees.
During her successful stint with the underground supper clubs, Godbole had started collecting traditional recipes. She approached several top cookbook agents with the idea of writing her own, but was turned down by all of them. “I was rejected because none of my ideas included recipes for Butter Chicken, Chicken Tikka Masala, Aloo Parathas. Unfortunately, the agents still wanted to push the same stereotypes, whereas I wanted to put an end to that cycle” she says. Steadfast in her determination, Nandita launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter for her very first book in February 2014. “A Dozen Ways To Celebrate’’ was completely funded within the first 20 hours of the campaign. Its audience included readers from USA, UK and Australia; in fact, 98% of its readers were non-Indians,” she elaborates. ‘“I deliberately released ‘Not For You’ on International Women’s Day (March 8).No matter the circumstances, women have always been their family’s nurturers. The food they cook everyday plays an integral role in keeping the family grounded through adversities. It becomes comfort food for the ensuing generations. Think about it, we don’t prepare comfort foods for parties, but when we feel nostalgic. The foods of one’s family connect them to their native roots.”
In her event with Kitchen Queens, along with doing a reading from ‘Not For You’ and sharing some of her family’s comfort food recipes, Godbole will speak about the importance of preserving the recipes treasured by a family. “The ethnicity doesn’t matter, what matters is how everyone felt while enjoying the food. Every generation has different experiences and tastes than the one preceding them, but we need to treasure those layers of changes - that’s how we preserve culture,” she finishes.
The event is free of charge and will be held at Anda Lari in Artesia from 4 to 5.30 pm.
‘Not For You’ is the saga of 12 characters, spanning a timeframe of almost more than a century. Book One begins in 1857 and is set in 19th Century rural India. It traverses through the lives of 3 different couples, the choices they made (both for themselves and their children) and how those choices shaped their future. Stretching across 80 years, it ends in 1940, few years before India received independence from Great Britain. The story in Book Two resumes from where it was left off in Book One; the lives of the 3 families from different parts of the country converge in Book Two, which is set in urban India and towards the end, in the US at the onset of the 21st Century. What sets ‘Not For You’ apart from other books is the amalgamation of family folklore with traditional food recipes shared by the author at the end of every chapter. Staying true to her roots as a third-generation chef, Nandita has successfully managed to centralize the theme of cooking in ‘Not For You’, which she claims is a “food-novel”.
Godbole is a writer and a full-time author with several other cookbooks to her credit - ‘A Dozen Ways To Celebrate’, ‘Crack The Code’ and ‘Roti’ to name a few. She holds two Master’s Degrees,one in Economic Botany and the other in Landscape Architecture from the University of Mumbai and University of Illinois respectively.
Another feather in her cap is how she has worked to change the way people look at Indian food. Speaking to IJ she said “The Michelin-star style and level of cooking cannot be implemented by ordinary people in their daily lives. Palak Paneer, Butter Chicken, Naan still define ‘Indian food’ for many people; that’s still not something we eat everyday!” she exclaims. To make this change, she got involved with hosting small, private cooking events, and initiated a series of supper club dinners both in Atlanta and Los Angeles, which garnered immense appreciation from its attendees.
During her successful stint with the underground supper clubs, Godbole had started collecting traditional recipes. She approached several top cookbook agents with the idea of writing her own, but was turned down by all of them. “I was rejected because none of my ideas included recipes for Butter Chicken, Chicken Tikka Masala, Aloo Parathas. Unfortunately, the agents still wanted to push the same stereotypes, whereas I wanted to put an end to that cycle” she says. Steadfast in her determination, Nandita launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter for her very first book in February 2014. “A Dozen Ways To Celebrate’’ was completely funded within the first 20 hours of the campaign. Its audience included readers from USA, UK and Australia; in fact, 98% of its readers were non-Indians,” she elaborates. ‘“I deliberately released ‘Not For You’ on International Women’s Day (March 8).No matter the circumstances, women have always been their family’s nurturers. The food they cook everyday plays an integral role in keeping the family grounded through adversities. It becomes comfort food for the ensuing generations. Think about it, we don’t prepare comfort foods for parties, but when we feel nostalgic. The foods of one’s family connect them to their native roots.”
In her event with Kitchen Queens, along with doing a reading from ‘Not For You’ and sharing some of her family’s comfort food recipes, Godbole will speak about the importance of preserving the recipes treasured by a family. “The ethnicity doesn’t matter, what matters is how everyone felt while enjoying the food. Every generation has different experiences and tastes than the one preceding them, but we need to treasure those layers of changes - that’s how we preserve culture,” she finishes.
The event is free of charge and will be held at Anda Lari in Artesia from 4 to 5.30 pm.
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