Bhubaneswar: It was a journey of 10 years filled with sunshine and rain, occasional thunderstorms, when she lost and found and lived a dream.
Ritu Patnaik’s first cook book, ‘259 Inherited Recipes of Odisha’ was recently launched by Governor Ganeshi Lal. “This recipe book is in English as I wanted to reached out to connoisseurs of good food worldwide, who would like to try some authentic cuisines from Odisha,” said this Bhubaneswar denizen, who always had an inherent interest in Odia food.
“I also felt the need to document inherited and near-extinct cuisines to preserve Odisha’s heritage food for posterity,” she said.
The idea of this book was sown in September 2013 when her late husband Sambit Mohanty, also director of critically-acclaimed 2018 Odia film ‘Hello Arsi’, suggested that she should write a cook book in simple English and coffee table book format.
“Initially, I neglected the thought but soon it struck me it would help my non-Odia friends understand and learn the beauty of our food and got down to work from mid-2014. It kept me busy till the end of 2015. There were some distractions thereafter as my husband was working on his film and he fell ill and broke his left hand while re-shooting some of the scenes. And what followed completely devastated me,” she said.
Her husband passed away in February 2017, due to brain stroke while the film was in post-production stage. Now the responsibility of completing his unfinished project was on Ritu, who took it upon her to ensure that the film saw the light of the day.
The 90-minute film, starring Prakruti Mishra and Partha Sarathi Ray, went on to win the best Odia film award in the 65th edition of National Film Awards. Mohanty also won the award for the best dialogue posthumously.
Ritu then turned her attention to their other dream project, the cook book.
“It took me almost 3 years to resume writing as I did not have a desktop or a laptop. I already had 100+ recipes saved in pen drives. Gradually, I got a laptop and started writing before I was asked to stop as it was getting voluminous,” she said.
The book has some rare cuisines from different parts of Odisha, according to Ritu, which include ‘Silapua Pitha’, prepared during Raja Sankranti; ‘Nishkrui Pitha, prepared during Gamha Purnima in Nayagarh; ‘Mooga Sijha Puri’, which is made during the holy month of Kartika.
Among the many simple menu for breakfast is ‘Mudhi Amabadarua’.
She has also written about ‘Dahi Barendi’, a 1960s cuisine belonging to Athagarh, and ‘Patua’, ‘Dala Khechedi’ and ‘Ramarochak Tarkari’ of Baripada.
She has picked some cuisines from those suggested by her friends in food groups on Facebook.
Speaking about her interest in cooking, Ritu said that it all began in Class VII when she won a ‘Chai’ competition.
“My mother was great cook but she never allowed me and my sisters into the kitchen. So I would observe her cooking and try to pick the nuances in food. This interest only grew with age. Now, I am only too happy to have been able to convert all that I have gathered and learnt about Odisha heritage food in all these years into a book form,” she said.
Ritu has rightfully dedicated this book to her late husband. “I won’t call it an amazing journey. The book was his dream and it took a beautiful shape at the end but without him,” she added.
