Merry Christmas to all the readers of The Gourmet Glutton. As a Christmastime treat, I’ve decided to post the 2014 article I wrote for my college magazine Rupantar, the catalyst for my Food and the Senses series. Click here if you missed the first part. And here’s part 2 of the original FATS. So, that’s…
Author: Utsav
Part-time radiologist, full-time foodie
The FATS Journey (Part 1)
I started my blog in August, and the Food and the Senses series has been a dominant component so far. The roots of this series, however, goes back five years, to November of 2014. The student community of Medical College Kolkata publishes an annual magazine called Rupantar. It features stories, personal anecdotes, beautiful poems and…
Foods, Trends and the 2010s (Part 1)
In a few days, we will be stepping into a new decade, ripe with opportunities. But before we do, it is worthwhile to stop and look back at the decade which saw the Gangnam style and Ice buckets, memes and instalikes, two royal weddings, Modi and Trump and so much more. From a shy kid…
Ring of Fire
Food and the Senses (Part 7) “Love is a burning thing, and it makes a fiery ring”, goes the lyrics of Johnny Cash’s 1963 country hit. Fun fact, the original version was recorded a year earlier by Cash’s sister Anita Carter. The closest thing we get to a ring of fire in the culinary world…
Of Textures and Contrasts
Food and the Senses (Part 6) We’re reaching the end of this long series which explores the five senses in the context of food. In our journey so far, we’ve talked about tastes and smells, sights and sounds, and we’re now ready to talk about the fifth and final sense. There are a lot of…
Commercial Cunning, Crunch and Crackle
Food and the Senses (Part 5) In Part 4 of FATS, we saw how appearance greatly affects our eating experience. Over the rest of the month, we examined the visual aspect of food, mostly from an aesthetic viewpoint and this week, we we will examine the psychological side. We already talked a little bit about…
Rustic Meets Trendy (Part 1)
Sarson da saag, Makki di roti aur Chaas In the last article on deconstruction (which you can check out here), we talked about the pros and cons of this culinary trend, how it can go terribly wrong and how it can completely transform a classic. We restricted ourselves to speculations and sketches with the analysis…
Anatomy of a Cheesecake
Deconstruction isn’t a brand-new concept, but it is a trend that is rapidly catching on, especially in the pastry kitchen. It is all about playing around with the presentation of a dish, while maintaining its overall taste and identity. The purists are strictly against it, always faulting it in some way or the other. Others…
Culinary Colours
As we’ve discussed already, we eat with our eyes first. The appearance of a dish can greatly influence our appetite, and colour plays a particularly important role. This week, let us explore the role of colour in food, ranging from the aesthetic to the psychological. Let’s start with the obvious. Just as a beautiful garden,…
Art on a Plate
Food and the Senses (Part 4) As the saying goes, we eat with our eyes first. Sight is one of the first senses to be engaged when we are presented with a plate of food and hence plays a very vital role in our decision of whether or not to engage the other senses at…
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