Crossing Borders / Sharing Flavours
A talk series tracing how migration, local ecology, trade routes, and changing ingredients reshaped the Bengali palate.
Venue: KCC Library
Date: 19 June, 17 July & 7 August 2026
KCC presents Crossing Borders / Sharing Flavours, a series of talks by food anthropologists Amit Sen and Amrita Bhattacharya exploring the journeys of food across regions, communities, and cultures. Through storytelling, research, and historical inquiry, the sessions examine how culinary traditions travel and transform through migration, trade, colonial histories, and cultural exchange. The talks trace the experiences of communities such as the Bengali diaspora in the Andaman Islands, Myanmar, and the UK, exploring how traditional dishes adapted to new environments, ingredients, and social contexts over time. The series also reflects on changing food histories within Bengal itself, from shifts in cooking techniques to the arrival of ingredients such as potatoes through colonial trade routes. Alongside discussions on migration and memory, the sessions engage with the traditions of foraging and their connections to ecology, survival, and indigenous knowledge systems. Bringing together anthropology, culinary history, and lived experience, Crossing Borders / Sharing Flavours approaches food as more than sustenance – as a cultural archive shaped by movement, memory, and human connection.
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Dr. Amrita Bhattacharya is a chef, researcher, academic, and food anthropologist whose work explores the archaeology of the kitchen and the movement of recipes and ingredients across borders through migration, colonialism, and trade.
Amit Sen is a filmmaker, academic, and visiting professor associated with several film institutes. He brings a cinematic and historical perspective to their collaborative research and documentation practices. He has also been associated with several notable advertising campaigns, including the iconic Shalimar Oil Durga Puja campaign.
Together, they run Handpicked by Amrita, an ongoing culinary and research initiative based in Santiniketan that combines food, storytelling, and cultural history through immersive experiences and documentation.
