Tarana was an indifferent eater and an unenthusiastic cook until a chance encounter with a nineteenth-century Persian cookbook in Rampur's fabled Raza Library started her off on a journey into the history of Rampur cuisine and the stories around it.
Part food memoir and part celebration of a cuisine, Degh to Dastarkhwan answers the question-'what constitutes and distinguishes Rampur cuisine?' Each chapter represents an emotion, an observance or a celebration. The spread of Rampuri food from the grand royal cuisine to the simple daily fare becomes the arena to express love, loss, forgiveness and spirituality. Peopled with compelling characters from all walks of life, the book is a tour de force that includes recollections of a princess to the spiritual ambience of a Sufi shrine, with stories of khansamas, weddings and funerals.
About the Author
Dr Tarana Husain Khan is a writer and cultural historian. Her writings on the oral history, culture and the famed cuisine of the erstwhile princely state of Rampur have appeared in prominent publications such as Al Jazeera, Eaten Magazine, Scroll.in and in the anthologies Desi Delicacies (Pan Macmillan, India) and Dastarkhwan: Food Writing from South Asia and Diaspora (Beacon Books, UK). She is the author of historical fiction The Begum and the Dastan, which won the Kalinga Literary Award for fiction and was shortlisted for Women Writer's Award by She The People and longlisted for AutHER Award.
She is currently working on a Research Fellowship at the University of Sheffield for an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project 'Forgotten Food: Culinary Memory, Local Heritage and Lost Agricultural Varieties in India'.
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