He was a self-confessed glutton. Today, Joymalya Banerjee prefers to force others to pig out

A long time ago, in a state by the sea lived a boy who loved to eat. One day, when the boy was five, his mother left him at home and went to the market. Right then his cousin called to say she was coming over—with a friend. It was lunch time. The boy knew his cousin would be famished. And his Ma was not around. Would his cousin and friend go hungry? “My five-year-old self was so fond of eating that I was aghast by the possibility of anyone going hungry. So off I went to the kitchen to cook rice and fish curry like a good, Bengali host. The fish I actually managed. I was sadly mistaken about my expertise in cooking rice. I kept on adding water till the basin was choked. Luckily my mother and cousin arrived at the same time and saved the house from getting flooded,” confesses Chef Joymalya Banerjee, the owner and Chef at Bohemian, a Kolkata restaurant, creating waves in east of India, about his first-time cooking experience. Before we say more about Chef Banerjee, a little note: you could take this Chef out of Bengal but you cannot take Bengal out of him. When they are not eating, people in Bengal pass time planning the next meal. And boy, do they love to talk—mostly about food. A true son of his state, Chef Banerjee, the son of a marine engineer father and a homemaker mother, merrily abandoned every ‘respectable and Bengali’ career possibilities to combine his twin passions; cooking and business. After school, when the good boys were starting their ‘serious’ science and humanities degrees, Banerjee was learning to slice and dice at the Indian Institute of Hotel Management. “Then I went to the Oberoi School of Hotel Management (Delhi) to learn the ropes,” says Chef Banerjee. He completed his degree and started his first venture; a catering-cum-delivery business—the first of its kind in east of India—which was an instant hit. “It has been 10 years that I closed that venture. But, I still get calls asking me whether I still deliver,” he says. The Chef in him might have been ready for the catering venture, but the businessman was far from it. After it flopped, Chef Banerjee decided that he would have to re-learn and re-think and joined Oh! Calcutta, a standalone eatery being run by the Anjan Chatterjee-led Speciality Restaurants. “I was never afraid to experiment. Ever since I can remember I have been cooking,” he adds. So experiment he did— with him as its captain Oh! Calcutta spread across Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Pune. And he became the mainstay of the restaurant chain. It was there that Banerjee made a name as an artist who loved to play with palates. He finally quit it to pursue his dream of doing something on his own, thus Bohemian. In Bohemian, Chef Banerjee has continued his habit of playing with palates and customers’ minds. Sample this; mutton with baby onions, green mango and cheese served with rice. Pan-baked fish with aam ada (a type of tangy, sweet ginger) sauce. How about prawn with muddled grapes, chillies and coconut; or sorshe (mustard) and coconut souffle. And a Hilsa baked in a crust of boris (lentil dumplings that are dried and then crisp fried)—if it is not fusing flavours then what is? Who mixes chhana (a grainier version of cottage cheese, not as fine as paneer) with paanch phoron (Bengal five spices) to create a souffle? Well, Banerjee does. However, beware; this chef does not like his food to be called ‘fusion’. “There is a reason for it. Like music, to even pretend that you can fuse two separate forms, one has to have an expert. I cannot pretend that I know Bengali or western cooking methods so well that I will manage to creatively splice both and create something novel,” he says. Like all great artists, Banerjee trusts his ingredients and gets to know them thoroughly before he experiments. “I believe that a cook has to research a lot. I have this personal obsession with jaggery. It is no less complicated than wine. Then there is the paanch phoron (five spices) that no Bengali kitchen is complete without. And I love gandharaj (an off-shoot of Kaffir and wild lime).” He loves the lime so much that he has created a gentle, refreshing drink with it and he continues to mix it in most dishes. And Chef Banerjee loves to experiment with the Anglo-Indian cusine. “There was once a sahib who ordered his bawarchi to make a quick dal. The cook did so with three types of lentils, ghee and ginger. But the concoction turned out to be too hot. The cook went back and added the first thing he spotted, apples,” he says about a peculiar dish called dal churchuri. Banerjee admires the cook for his novelty. Though he seems chatty enough, the evolution of food, flavours, taste and local produce gets Banerjee really talking. “Bengal cuisine carries the influence of British, Dutch, French and Arabic tastes. It is evolved enough, but it needs to experiment just a little to meet the new demands.” Chefs like Banerjee are thus trying to give a twist to the bhadralok’s tale with the elders’ blessings. “I always ask senior customers for their inputs. I know the younger people are more open to experimentation. I need to know whether the senior lot—bit more strict about their shukto and shaak (saag)—approve,” he chuckles. Considering that Bohemian has been one of the few restaurants from the east of India which has received a four out of five stars in almost every rating site—he must be doing something right. As one ecstatic fan summed it up, “This kind of food not only comes out of hard work and experience, but also love and respect for each ingredient.”