He is also clear that many recipes use expensive ingredients as he does not skimp on quality. Every so often Abhijit clarifies that the book is not a healthy one contrary to its amusing title, although, many recipes qualify as healthy by accident. Useful strategies to assemble them abound – it is obvious the author is a passionate, competent, and clever cook. ‘Cooking to Save Your Life’ by Abhijit Banerjee.Īnother compelling reason is the recipes themselves which are feast friendly and many are unique. There are suggestions on what to serve your enemy and what to serve dear friends when you have forgotten that they are about to visit you and you have very little time to whip something up to impress them! I have long been fond of reading cookbooks in addition to cooking from them and the author’s language – direct, humorous and at times reprimanding – makes this book a good read.
Nobel prize winner for Economics in 2019, Abhijit Banerjee, proves that his first cookbook Cooking to Save Your Life is more than that in compelling ways – the pages contain insightful information for both the novice and experienced cook (I found measures such as size of a golf ball, and the phalanges of your fingers convenient) and are peppered with a good dose of thought-provoking nuggets on larger political and social issues pertinent to all of us. In an age when the charm of browsing, buying, and using cookbooks is increasingly being replaced by watching and learning from YouTube videos, a cookbook must be more than just a collection of recipes.