‘A quest to cling to something tangible’: Why Tarana Husain Khan writes about Rampur’s lost foods

Tarana Husain Khan is a writer and food historian with a passion for exploring the intersection of gender, history, culinary culture, and oral history. Her writings based on extensive research on the cuisine of the erstwhile princely state of Rampur have been published in prominent media outlets and in the anthologies Desi Delicacies (Pan Macmillan India) and Dastarkhwan: Food Writing from South Asia and Diaspora (Beacon Books, UK). Her research article, “Narrating Rampur Cuisine: Cookbooks, Forgotten Foods and Culinary Memories” was published in the Global Food History Journal (April 2023 issue).

Tarana is the author of a critically acclaimed book on Rampur cuisine, Degh to Dastarkhwan: Qissas and Recipes from Rampur (Penguin Random House India) which explores Rampur’s culinary history, and a bestselling historical fiction The Begum and the Dastan which won the Kalinga Literary Award for fiction, was shortlisted for Women Writer’s Award by She The People and longlisted for Auther Award. She has co-edited and contributed to an anthology of food writings, Forgotten Foods: Memories and Recipes from Muslim South Asia (Pan Macmillan India). She has also curated and contributed to a highly popular series “Forgotten Food” on Scroll and wrote a monthly column on Rampur cuisine, “Food Fables”, in DailyO.

Khan worked as a Research Fellow and Consultant at the University of Sheffield on an Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded...

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