“The book is a labour of love for our land, its culture, richness, divinity, and cuisine,” said Sandip Das, one of the three co-authors of The Orissan, a 370-page book (published by Penguin Random House India) that is a rich repository of information not just on the state’s food traditions but also on the past that has continues to shape the present.
When the book arrived in my mail, I thought of it as any other cookbook. It sat on my desk until one day, when I flipped through and found that it speaks as much about Odia cuisine as it does about the state’s maritime history, temple traditions, festivals, and culinary practices and symbols. “If you have questions about Odisha, you are likely to find most of your answers in the book,” said Alaka Jena, the co-author who has contributed all the recipes you will find in the book. The third author, Pallavi Das is the creative force behind bringing the book to life.
My introduction to Odisha’s cuisine was during a one-day trip to the coastal town of Rambha back in 2025. Temperatures were soaring, and we were served pakhala bhaat at the very start of a meal. Pakhala is a probiotic dish prepared by overnight fermenting rice in water, adding curd, and tempering it with mustard oil, curry leaves, and spices. Simple, comforting, and just what one needs to cool down. When I shared this with the authors during a Zoom call, Das said, “whether you dine at a royal’s table or in a fisherman’s shack in Odisha, pakhala bhaat will find its way to you.”
Know More About The Book And The Authors
One early morning, I hopped on a call with the three authors to discuss the book. I asked them, “What led two brand strategists and one public policy professional to co-author a book on Odisha?”
“I think it’s two things: our love for Odisha and the lack of knowledge across India about our cuisine and culture. Odisha is often seen as raw, rugged, and rustic, associated with temples and divinity. We wanted to show that it is rich and nuanced, and that divinity finds its way into people’s lives and food,” said S. Das. Pallavi, who now lives in the United States and has spent most of her life away from Odisha, spoke about how she always felt distant from her origins. “When my relatives spoke fondly about the state, I had a strong urge to return to my roots or at least be connected to them,” she said.
From the Kalinga Empire and the legacy of Odisha’s temples and temple food to the state’s wedding feasts, maritime history, and wildlife map, the first 100 pages of the book set the tone and contextualise the recipes that follow. One of the most interesting bits of information I picked up was that the freshness of a fish can be gauged by how alive its eyes look.
After reading through a third of the book, you arrive at the recipes, ranging from a variety of pithas (rice cakes) and chai-time snacks and nibbles to the legendary chhena desserts of Odisha and seafood preparations that lie at the heart of the cuisine.
The book was written over 2.5 years and is equal parts snackable and detailed. When I asked the authors what readers should expect before picking up the book, all three said, “They should be ready to enter Odisha of the past and the present. And more importantly, they should be ready to feel hungry as they progress through the book.” Right they are: A flip through the encyclopedic cookbook will leave you reaching for something to eat.
A Peek Into Orissa’s Simple Yet Layered Cuisine
Jena, who started documenting her mother’s recipes in 1995 and now runs a blog and organises pop-ups across the country, has contributed her recipes to the book. On Odisha’s cuisine, she said, “There is no one set of dishes that I can define as Odia cuisine; the diversity within the state stands out for me.”
She explained this by dividing the state into northern, southern, western, and coastal (eastern) Odisha. In the coastal parts of Odisha, where Jena hails from, she mentions that influences from the Jagannatha Puri temple (on the Eastern coast) seep into the food, leading to sweeter notes and a heavy use of tubers like sweet potato and pumpkin. “In most eastern Odisha homes, you will find people growing their own moringa, papaya, banana, mango, jackfruit, and coconut, and if homes run out of their own supply, they rarely visit a supermarket; instead, they ask their neighbour.”
As one moves north, proximity to Calcutta increases, and these areas are predominantly tribal. Towards Southern Odisha, the flavour profiles become sharper and spicier, rather than sweet, as in the coastal areas. These are also areas that border Andhra Pradesh. Talking about the Western part of the state, Jena mentioned that they lean more towards sour flavours, and that bamboo shoots are an important ingredient in most of their dishes.
When I asked her about the belief that Odia food is bland and simple, she said, “It is because we have not been conquered and dominated by outsiders for a very long time. Though we have influenced many cuisines, we have not been influenced.”
Some dishes that define the cuisine include pithas. While every part of the country has one or the other version of rice cake, pitha for the Odias is not just food but memory, tradition, celebration, and everyday life rolled into one. It is usually made using rice flour, sometimes semolina and even wheat flour. It can be steamed like enduri pitha or manda pithas, deep-fried like kakara pitha or saptapuri pitha, or slow-cooked over wood like poda pitha. S. Das recalls the enduri pitha that his mother used to prepare. “I have tasted food from cuisines across the world, but nothing tastes like my mother’s pitha,” he said.
Das also mentioned that rice and seafood are intrinsic to the cuisine. He spoke about a dish called mudhi mansa, which is an iconic traditional dish from Baripada in the Mayurbhanj district of Odisha, combining crispy puffed rice (mudhi) with a spicy, rich mutton curry (mansa). “Even after leaving it for some time, the rice would not get soggy,” said Das with great fascination.
Housing over a hundred recipes, The Orissan is a great entry point into Odisha’s kitchens, festivals, culinary traditions, and history alike. That context makes one of my favourite sections from the book, called “A Pinch of Salt,” especially fitting.
“Each recipe is less formula, more a lesson in judgement. Real measurements are in fingertips—in the way wrists tilt and pour spices from the jar, in the memory of colours and sounds.”
This also tells a lot about the philosophy of the book and its recipes, which can be picked up by a person from a different culture, yet approached with ease and simplicity that relies as much on ingredients as on one’s own instinct and flavour. Together, these lines echo the book’s emphasis on judgement and instinct.
