Rakhi Purnima Dasgupta, pioneering restaurateur and food columnist, passed away early on Sunday following a cardiac arrest, a family member said. She was 66.
Dasgupta is synonymous with her Bengali speciality restaurant Kewpie’s, housed on the ground floor of the family’s century-old Elgin Road residence.
“She was suffering from kidney ailments,” said the family member.
The eatery, which turned 25 this October, was started as a 12-seater in the garage in 1998 as a collaboration of herself, her father Prateep Dasgupta and sister Pia Promina. The name was a tribute to her mother Minakshie ‘Kewpie’ Dasgupta, who had authored Bangla Ranna and Calcutta Cookbook, from where the recipes of the initial menu were taken.
It was a ground-breaking move as the only eateries serving Bengali food in those days were Suruchi, a charity run by destitute women on Eliott Road, and the five-star address Aaheli, at Peerless Inn. Her signature dishes like Kosha Mangsho, Daab Chingri, Palong Kofta and Goalondo Chicken Curry became a rage among Kolkatans, for whom ordering Bengali food while eating out had been an alien concept.
Serving the food on banana leaves on earthenware cutlery, Dasgupta would guide guests so that their orders would encompass the six primary tastes in a Bengali meal — bitter, saline, pungent, sour, sweet and astringent. She spoke of the simplicity of Bengali food, but stressed on how tough it was to get the taste right, as it depended on phoron (tempering) and not much on spices or oil.
She had developed an interest in cooking while studying in London and started off professionally in Delhi in the early '90s, not with Bengali food but with an eight-course Thai meal on the weekends.
She recently shared her Thai cuisine expertise by curating a pop-up buffet as part of her collaboration with a Lake Road eatery. She was also keen to start a Bengali breakfast menu, heavy on snacks, to cater to morning walkers and pull in a younger generation.
She had featured in several leading food shows including BBC’s A Taste of India by Madhur Jaffrey. Her book Eating Calcutta is awaiting release.