Mayukh Sen

“Fusion” had already become a dirty word by the time Raji Jallepalli made a name for herself. It connoted confused attempts to patch together different cooking languages under the patina of multiculturalism, as if two worlds jostled for dominance on a plate. Raji disentangled fusion from the gracelessness that the label implied.

By diluting its Japanese character and turning food into theater, this millionaire chef introduced Japanese cuisine to American diners neither familiar with or open to it. He was both a culinary pioneer and a brilliant opportunist.

Mayukh Sen looks back at Barbra Streisand’s career as an actress, director and producer — shedding light on the sexist double standards in Hollywood that have led to her being portrayed as “difficult” for the kinds of demands and expectations her male counterparts are never called into question for.

When Buffy Sainte-Marie had her first child in 1976, she woke up in the hospital next to a basket of formula. As a Native American, she came from a culture in which best-feeling had been discouraged and even prohibited. So she decided to take the issue into her workplace, breastfeeding her son on an episode of Sesame Street.

While being punished by a cruel sexist practice in West Bengal, the Indian widows considered “husband-eaters” created a rich cuisine made without meat, onions, fish or garlic. Writer Mayukh Sen honors these creative women through the story of great-grandmother, a widow at 37.

From the 1960s through the 1990s, Princess Pamela ran a thriving word-of-mouth restaurant inside her Manhattan apartment, and it attracted enough taste-makers to make her a legend. Then she abruptly closed shop and disappeared. Like many black culinary figures, her memory was nearly lost, until white celebrity chefs used their influence to revive it.

A personal essay about queerness, dessert and the origins of a homophobic and gastronomic slur.