JLF 2024: ‘It’s important for people to eat a little less, a little healthy and be mindful’: Karen Anand

What about food appealed to you as a writer?

I would call my books ‘food memoirs,’ and each of them has a socio-cultural context; there is also an economic and a historical context in addition to the culinary one. Around the stories I weave, people’s socio-cultural context is very important.

I studied something quite different, I studied international relations, and I did French and Russian, and I lived in Europe. I came back to India for personal reasons, and got into food. I, sort of, catapulted into food really. It was not something I had chosen.

And a friend of mine, or rather somebody whom I looked up to, many years ago, said to me, always have three careers in your mind because you never know when one doesn’t work out the way you want to. And that’s what happened. I thought I would be working in an international organization and I came back to India and found, I didn’t speak Hindi, my parents were not Hindi speakers, that I really couldn’t find anything I wanted to do. And I didn’t live in Delhi, and all the international stuff was happening in Delhi.

I liked food, but I hadn’t studied it professionally. And then I guess I was good at it because there weren’t so many people doing European food at that time, and it’s not because I feel European food is better or worse than ours. It’s [European food] what I related to, and that’s what I brought to the table. And at that time, it was the right thing to bring to the table because people were interested in health, in discovering new things, and I was there.

Was there any particular moment when you got inspired to take it up professionally?

Well, I think success. Success motivates you.

How did food and consultation go together for you?

I started writing first, when I had the TV programmes that got me in the limelight. People from Hindustan Lever, Britannia and Pepsi came to me asking me to promote their products. And when I started promoting their products, I also started developing products for them. And they loved that. So I first started promoting, for example, Britannia, how to use their different cheeses in India because it was all very new in those days.

And then I started doing recipe and menu development. For example, for Pepsi, I developed Nimbus. With Britannia, I worked on the creme cheese. And because I understood food, and had a bit of an academic background, I could put it into a form that corporates could understand. I really enjoyed that.

In food, what or who, according to you, determines trends?

I think a lot of trends today come from the internet. It’s like fashion — you know there’s couture, and there’s pret. Food also becomes really famous with chefs. Chefs are really the leaders. In the old days, it was the royalty in India, or whoever the common people looked up to — they used to look up to these fantastic dishes of Lucknow, of the royal family, and then they would try and replicate the same thing.

What would you call trending in food these days?

What’s trending now is things like small plates. So you don’t sit at a table and eat a proper dinner, you go to a party and you have a little bowl of something… So I think grazing is a big trend now. I think the other trend is cocktails and a bar, of course. Even serious restaurants which have done really well the world over, you know, see the importance of a bar. I am not judging, good, bad or ugly. People need interesting drinks, and obviously the bar has become all important.

How do you personally keep up with the emerging trends in food?

I have to, for my clients. It’s important for me to know what’s going on. I try not to judge. I do like the idea of a bar. I like the idea of not eating heavy food at night, and that people are grazing. These are trends that are here to stay. I don’t like the trend of sweets, big patisseries and bakeries, but that’s happening.

You see this alarming rate of diabetes, high blood pressure. You know, everybody’s got insurance, because they are worried about being hospitalised. I think it’s important for people to eat a little bit less, a little bit healthy, and be mindful of what they are eating.

How do you define the term ‘healthy’?

One has to watch their diet 70 per cent. And have to exercise 30 per cent. It has to be a lifestyle choice. I don’t think you can do it for three months and give it up. I think the old ghar ka khana were great. People used to eat sabzi-roti, dal-chawal, nothing wrong with that. They don’t eat that anymore. You have pizza, nachos, which are very carb-based, and fried. And it’s fine to eat carbs and fried food, if you are walking 10 kms a day to work, right? But you don’t walk 10 kms a day anymore, nobody does it.

Everything in moderation, and you have to be mindful… Of course I also splurge. Look at my profession, I have to keep tasting. But you have to balance it at any age.