Stories from ‘soup kitchen for lost souls’

NT Correspondent
Bengaluru: For the uninitiated, 1ShantiRoad is an art gallery and artists’residency situated in Shanti Nagar not too far from St. Joseph’s Arts and Science College. And last weekend,they launched the second edition of their in-house cookbook. Written and compiled by Suresh Jayaram, the book took nearly two years to put together and contains over 150 recipes from 70 contributors from all over the
world.“Anyone who has stayed at 1ShantiRoad and cooked in our kitchen has contributed a recipe,” said Jayaram, who believes that food is a social lubricant that sparks conversations. “Most of the recipes are quick to make, easy on the stomach.”

“I rarely eat alone. And I’m always cooking for at least 10 people. People are always dropping in to eat. That’s why my place has sometimes been called a soup kitchen or an anath ashram (orphanage) of lost souls,” said Jayaram who is often assisted in the kitchen by Devi Raju who is the cook at 1ShantiRoad.
We are then invited to try out a spread laid out of recipes from the book that includes Sundal, stir fry
potato, raw mango chutney, curry leaf dip and rum punch, albeit without rum. For Suresh, the greatest compliment was when his mother visited his kitchen and told him that he was keeping the family tradition of cooking and feeding people alive.

The book, published by Reliable Publishers, is available at Champaca Bookstore and can be picked up directly at 1ShantiRoad with a signature from the author.