Gaitri Pagrach-Chandra

Food writer and author

Biography

Gaitri was born and brought up in Guyana, where her Indian ancestors had settled several generations before. After studying Political Science and Modern Languages in Canada and Spain, she went to live in the Netherlands with her Dutch husband. Her passion is for bringing lesser-known ethnic specialities to the attention of a wider audience, with much emphasis on baked goods. Gaitri writes primarily in English, but also in Dutch. She has received a Sophie Coe award for Food History and two her books have won major awards. Warm Bread and Honey Cake was the Guild of Food Writers’ Cookery Book of the Year 2010; Het Nederlands Bakboek was ‘Kookboek van het Jaar 2012’ (Cookbook of the Year) in the Netherlands. When not busy with food or writing projects, Gaitri is actively involved in village affairs and soothing hobbies such as pottery and clay modelling.

Ottolenghi: The Cookbook

Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi

The big bold flavours and intriguing spice blends paired with often very ordinary vegetables made me sit up and take notice.

Indonesian Food and Cookery

Sri Owen

Sri's recipes always work - and they taste delicious! In this book she has collected dishes from all over her native Indonesia and brought them to life with her appealing narrative.

Memories of Philippine Kitchens

Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan

Well-researched, well-written and beautifully photographed, this book is the best introduction to Filipino food.

Rick Stein's India: In Search of the Perfect Curry

Rick Stein

I own many books on Indian food and cooking, but this is the one that most inspires me to reach for my spices and get out my pots.

Food of Life

Najmieh Batmanglij

Subtle but sumptuous food with fascinating cultural perspective. Lovingly written and published at a time when few people knew much about Persian food.

The Book of Jewish Food

Claudia Roden

Even superlatives fall short when describing Claudia Roden's work. This is simply a wonderful book that demands to be read and cooked from in equal measures.

Nevin Halici's Turkish Cookbook

Nevin Halici

Nevin's recipes are easy to follow and her calm prose provides intriguing snippets of historical and cultural information.

Bakewise

Shirley Corriher

What Shirley Corriher doesn't know about baking is simply not worth knowing. She explains about chemical processes and reactions in such a chatty and easy way that you hardly realise how much information you have actually absorbed. Then she provides recipes to illustrate her points.

English Bread and Yeast Cookery

Elizabeth David

This is the book that showed me that there was more to baking than just producing a bread, cake or biscuit. And it made me want to tell stories about these things too, to bring baked goods to life for people.

The Melting Pot: Balkan Food and Cookery

Maria Kaneva-Johnson

It may not be the trendiest of foods at present, but when it reaches that stage, you'll be happy to have read this gem of a book, which is well-written, clearly laid out and illustrated with the author's own line drawings.

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What's playing in Gaitri's kitchen?

Usually 'real' reggae music as it is so cheerful and suits the vibrant kind of cooking I love. Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff are my favourites, but I also have several compilations.