Chitrita Banerji, a Bengali-American writer, grew up in Calcutta, India, and came to the United States as a graduate student. She received her Master’s Degree in English from Harvard University. She now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts and travels frequently to India.

In her writing, Banerji uses both fiction and nonfiction to examine the relationships between memory, history, culture, religion, and food. She is the author of several books on the food and culture of her native India, the latest being Eating India: An Odyssey into the Food and Culture of the Land of Spices, published in the United States in 2007. Time Out, London, listed it among the best new food books of 2008. Her work has been included in Best American Travel Writing 2006.

Her first novel, Mirror City, is published by Penguin Viking. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is her first biography published by Juggernaut.

Her latest book is A Taste of My Life: A Memoir in Essays and Recipes, published in December 2021 by Picador India/Pan Macmillan India.

FROM THE BOOK JACKET:

“In this memoir, styled like a three-course meal with an ironic twist, she offers an absorbing portrait of a life that has intermingled with food in moving and unexpected ways. Through vividly evoked repasts with family and other meaningful gastronomic encounters in settings both personal political, Banerji reveals how food has played a defining role in her experiences of love, adventure, conflict, loss, and reconciliation. In the process, she introduces us to those dishes and drinks most special to her — Kadam Bhai’s duck bhuna, her father’s favorite tea, winter treats such as narkel naru, a chicken sandwich from memoryland — and charms us throughout with her sublime and enchanting prose.”