NEW YORK TIMES: THE YEAR’S BEST COOKBOOKS

To make this year a sweet one, my book Street Food of India seems to be doing very well worldwide. It made it to the list of The Year’s Best Cookbooks in The New York Times and received very good reviews.

“My favorite is “Street Food of India” by Sephi Bergerson, a photographer who lives in Delhi. In just 50 recipes and under 200 pages, Mr. Bergerson accomplishes the rare feat of capturing how people eat, not just what. He shows people eating, making and clamoring for the outdoor snacks that are nearly universal in India: cool lemonade spiked with cumin and salt, scalding hot sweet tea with ginger, potato cakes with vibrant herb chutneys.”
Julia Moskin, The New York Times

GOURMAND WORLD COOKBOOKS AWARDS 2010

To top that, An exciting turn of events and an early Christmas present as I was recently notified that Street Food of India was selected as the UK winner in the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards “Best Cookbook Photography” category! This means it will continue on to compete against winning cookbooks from other countries for “Best in the World.” The results will be announced on March 3, 2011 in Paris. Of course I am hoping that I’ll be forced to fly to France to accept this award.

This year I have also finished shooting and editing two other books that are now lined up for publication.
‘Horn Please – Trucks and Trucking in India‘ was a sponsored project I did for a corporate client. It has already gone down to press but is delayed for reasons only books know. A book is always a long project in the making and will sometimes take longer that expected.

The Indian weddings book currently bearing a working title of ‘Traditional Weddings in Modern India’ is done and I will be editing it in the next few months. It was very difficult to figure out how to edit a book about weddings without making it look like someone’s wedding album but I think I finally have a good idea of how it will look. I am very excited about this project that was initially planned for a year but has been in the making for three years already. This project had brought me into the world of wedding photography which was a territory I never thought I would venture into. The journey to learn about various traditions of weddings in India brought young couples to request me to photograph their weddings in India and in the last couple of years I have been enjoying it tremendously.

I have also had a chance to work on a few corporate assignments in other parts of India and have traveled quite extensively. Magazine assignment were also more regular than in the last couple of years and it seems we are over the recession now. A wonderful trip to Spiti valley in the upper Himalaya following a great motorcycle tour had brought me closer to action and adventure photography and I hope to be doing more of that in the next year.

Moving to Goa will probably open new channels and bring new kind of assignments and I look forward to that. If nothing else, I am sure that my family will be happy to live close to the beach and I simply cannot wait for that.

Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from India.

“Some of the photographs in this book are so beautiful they look like carefully crafted dishes made for a glossy magazine shoot. Bergerson has lived in India for the past seven years, and this book is an impressive reflection of time well spent. The recipes are delicious and can easily be recreated using ingredients easily found in the West, but it is the photographs that make the book stand out. Bergerson has a strong visual feel for Indian street life and the food that makes it distinctive, and he rarely takes a bad shot. There are some particularly arresting images of the street life in Calcutta, and of the colourful juice stands of Delhi. Many images are accompanied by text with fleeting details of how certain recipes are cooked, or the traditions surrounding them. Eating street food in India can be a slightly nerve-racking experience, but this book turns it into a pure pleasure.” (The Telegraph UK)

STREET FOOD OF INDIA by Sephi Bergerson (IB Tauris, £17.99)

From Meetha Lassi to Bhel Puri, from Paneer Tikka and masalas to chutneys, biryanis and samosas, visitors to India are greeted by an astonishing variety of street food, full of intense sights, smells and tastes. Acclaimed photographer Sephi Bergson has been tracking down the very best street food in the country, combining the vibrant and colours and mouth-watering sights with over 50 authentic recipes in his new book Street Food of India.

“From the teeming lanes of Old Delhi to the hot, dusty streets in the remote countryside.  It is painfully hard to resist the smells and sights and tastes of this roadside food, prepared in front of customers’ eyes with the freshest ingredients and a good helping of panache and showmanship. The acclaimed photographer Sephi Bergerson has been tracking down the very best street food in the country, which has been his home for the past seven years. This book is a celebration of this splendid everyday cuisine and a virtual feast in itself. With authentic and detailed recipes for the simplest and tastiest dishes in the repertoire, using ingredients easily found in the West, this serving will inspire and intoxicate in equal measure.” (Macmillan)

Book – Street Food Of India – Images by Sephi Bergerson

For more images of street food of India and for licensing please visit my archive HERE

A hard cover, 192 pages coffee table album with 156 images, STREET FOOD OF INDIA is a stunning visual documentation of the mind-boggling array of roadside snacks available in even the remotest corner of the country. From masala chai to vada pao, from parathas to chhole-bhature, this book will take you on a journey that no true-blue foodie can forget. The local flavor is palpable as you turn the pages, and what’s more, you can actually reproduce these mouth-watering eatables with the help of the 46 detailed, authentic recipes provided.

visit the page HERE for a small gallery of images form the book.

The German edition is now available online from Christian-Verlag and Amazon.de

Skillfully designed by Heema Sabharwal and with my images this wedding planner is now available in the stores across India.

For some behind the scene of making the book