IN-PERSON EVENT at Essex Market Teaching Kitchen
What happens when communities are created through immigration? What foods do they recreate, and how do they transform when native ingredients are no longer available?
In a panel led by executive editor of Bon Appetit, Sonia Chopra, join Chef Surbhi Sahni and Madhushree Ghosh, author of Khabaar: An Immigrant Journey of Food, Memory and Family, for a conversation that interrogates how food pathways change and morph following waves of immigration and how communities assimilate and miscegenate in the wake of these movements.
Your ticket includes a glass of wine and a tasting of vegan appetizers (Khatta Meeta Chaat, Mini Samosas, Tomato Watermelon Salad, & Mithai) from TAGMO.
Copies of Khabaar: An Immigrant Journey of Food, Memory and Family are available from our partner bookstore, Kitchen Arts & Letters for purchase online with your ticket or separately at the event. If you order a book with your ticket, you will be able to retrieve it for signing at the event.
This is an in-person event. Tickets must be purchased online in advance. Tickets will not be available for purchase at the door.
You must show photo ID and proof of COVID vaccine to attend this event.
SONIA CHOPRA
Sonia Chopra is the executive editor at Bon Appétit, where she helps lead content and strategy across platforms. Previously, she worked at Eater for eight years in a variety of different roles, including overseeing the brand’s network of city sites, running operations as managing editor, and co-executive producing Eater’s first broadcast television show, No Passport Required, for PBS.
MADHUSRHEE GHOSH
Madhushree Ghosh works in oncology diagnostics, and is a social justice activist. Her work has been awarded a Notable Mention in Best American Essays in Food Writing and a Pushcart Prize nomination. Khabaar (Iowa, 2022) is Ghosh’s first book and has been included in reading lists for Ms. Magazine, Brown Girl Bookshelf, and Cold Tea Collective. Ghosh lives in San Diego, California.
SURBHI SAHNI
With two decades of professional culinary experience, chef Surbhi Sahni brings home cooking traditions to modern Indian cuisine and confections. As a proud queer Indian female chef and entrepreneur, Surbhi pushes back against the manufactured prestige of Eurocentric white male chefs, and uses her platform to restore dignity to the legacies of home cooks, vegetable growers, rice farmers and spice wallahs who have cultivated regional cuisines for centuries. Before launching TAGMO, a New York City Indian restaurant and mithai sweet shop, Surbhi served as the creative force behind Michelin-starred New York City restaurants, Devi and Tulsi, and Saar Bistro in Midtown. She also served as the creative director and events director at Hemant Mathur Catering. Inspired by the abstract art pieces her father painted, Surbhi pursued an unconventional career in the culinary world—Indian female chefs like her are still a rarity—and has made her mark as a talented pastry chef with hand crafted cakes & confections that preserve the essence of South Asian mithai (sweets) innovated by her own distinct flavor pairings and delicate artistry.
Essex Market is New York City’s most historic public market. Our mission is to foster small business, and to serve the community with fresh and high quality food & services.
TAGMO brings regional homestyle cuisine and handmade mithai from across India to the table in NYC, telling stories of migration, cultural exchange and self-determination in the diaspora.
Kitchen Arts & Letters is a bookstore devoted to food and drink, with titles imported from around the world. They emphasize works on food culture and innovation.