Mayukh Sen > Quotes

“Capitalism can encourage artists, including chefs and cookbook authors, to suppress parts of themselves to cater to the market’s desires. I started to see this book as a critique of capitalism: how it devalues labor to the point where it makes people into products, longevity in American memory contingent on your ability to sell yourself.”
― Mayukh Sen, Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America

“Today the culture sees the fact that she wasn’t a mascot of ethnic pride as a demerit rather than an invitation to understand how discriminatory this world once was.”
― Mayukh Sen, Love, Queenie: Merle Oberon, Hollywood's First South Asian Star

“Long, long ago I learn it was not only important to excel, but also to be content" - Julie Sahni”
― Mayukh Sen, Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America

“The Food Establishment “consists of those people who write about food of restaurants on a regular basis, either in books, magazines, or certain newspapers, and thus have the power to start trends and, in some cases, begin and end careers,”
― Mayukh Sen, Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America

“For what better road to universal peace is there than to gather around the table where new and delicious dishes are set forth, dishes which, though yet untasted by us, we are destined to enjoy and love?”
― Mayukh Sen, Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America

“as performance of duty rather than an avenue for artistic expression. This book is partially a recovery project, capturing these women’s legacies in all their fullness. But as you read, I also urge you to question which immigrant stories our American culture values versus those it tosses aside—and why. Reading this book may warm your heart, but it should unsettle you at certain points, too. It should make you squirm.”
― Mayukh Sen, Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America