To be shared and relished

A cookbook that represents different cultures of living and eating

1 You founded the 1Shanthiroad Studio in Bangalore. The 1Shanthiroad Cookbook

(published by Reliable Copy) comprises recipes and anecdotes around food involving artists who were part of the residency program. Is this your way of acknowledging the role of the collective in the arts?

1Shanthiroad and the cookbook has been a collective collaboration of creative beings who have enriched this place by living and working here. The kitchen has been part of the living experience and the food cooked and served has been a catalyst for conversation. It has nourished hungry artists and kept their creative juices flowing! The philosophy of this place is being open and non-judgemental. As a core idea, it is like a sarai in the crossroads of one’s journey, and an oasis for conversations across local/global, native and cosmopolitan trajectories. And this cookbook is a result of these transactions.

2 How did you decide which recipes to include?

I was helped by Nihaal Faizal and Sarasija Subramanian who are the chief collaborators on this project. They are also former resident artists. They have set up Reliable Copy, a unique artist publishing house. It also celebrates the legacy of 18 years of the existence of 1Shanthiroad. The book is divided into various sections such as breakfast, snacks, dips, curries and gravies. We wanted to create an eclectic, cosmopolitan book reflecting the range of people who have cooked in our kitchen and contributed to the volume. Many of these are their home recipes because we usually ask visiting artists and friends to cook something that reminds them of home and represents different cultures of living and eating. In the process of making the book, we also realised that there are many people who can perhaps cook but writing a recipe is an art.

3 During the writing and design process were you thinking of the book as being akin to an installation in text?

Yes, we wanted to create an aesthetic experience. The making of the book and the process of cooking are part of my philosophy of looking at “Living as Art”’. Akshay Sethi, another resident artist, created the series of drawings that adorn this book. The front cover uses my doodles of the cooker and the mixer grinder — two presiding gods of the Indian kitchen! Also, you will notice the motif of the annapakshi on the inside. It is a motif from my mother’s wedding saree and the metaphor of this mythical bird is ideal to announce the book because it was believed that the bird could separate water from milk, light from darkness owing to its immense wisdom. The book was envisioned as an aesthetic experience — to savour the different rasas of art and food.

4 Finally, do you see this book in the library or the kitchen?

I see this book in the kitchen with oil stains and dog ears! To be used, shared and relished.