From promotion for the 2018 Tasting India Symposium, founded by Sourish "to empower Indian gastronomy and... to generate widespread, informed awareness of India’s rich and diverse gastronomy." Photo copyright d for delhi.
I'm pleased to report that Bloomsbury UK will publish a major new reference work on Indian cuisine edited by Colleen Taylor Sen, a Chicago-based author of five books on Indian history and cuisine, and Sourish Bhattacharyya, a Delhi-based journalist, Consulting Editor of BBC Good Food India, and Founder of the Tasting India Symposium.
The Companion will feature roughly 500 entries, at about 200,000 words, covering the entire cuisine and foodways of India, including regions, groups, and topics that have been neglected. In addition to separate entries on all the major regional and local cuisines, the Companion will cover the Indian Diaspora in North America and the Caribbean, the U.K., South Africa and other parts of the world where Indian dishes have evolved in fascinating ways. In-depth entries on Indian ingredients will include not only all the fruits, vegetables, cereals, nuts, herbs, spices, dairy products, fish and seafood and exotica commonly used in Indian cuisine, but also the lesser-known ones. There will also be more cultural entries: for example, on food in Indian religious feasts, and in philosophy, art, literature, television, and films, about which little has been written.
Working on the Companion recalled for me my time editing food and drink-related encyclopedias at Oxford University Press. The connection wasn't entirely in my head; the Companion was originally signed by OUP, but cancelled, along with several other reference works on regional cuisines, before I arrived as an editorial assistant there in 2009. I'm glad it has found a new home both in print and digitally, as part of the Bloomsbury Food Library.
Below is the Publisher's Marketplace deal memo. Congrats to Colleen, Sourish, and Miriam!
