The culinary expert will be fondly remembered

I grew up seeing a copy of Ranna, Khadyo, Pushti by Siddika Kabir on our bookshelf. Like our house, countless other houses in Bangladesh have a copy of this valuable book that instantly helps ease a mother, wife or daughter's culinary vexation. As a child, I often saw my mother flipping through its pages, looking for the recipe of a Chinese dish or anything that she was cooking for the first time. Ranna, Khadyo, Pushti also graces the bookshelves of Bengali households outside Bangladesh.

"I cannot help but consult Professor Kabir's book every time I cook a deshi curry," Nazia Hussein, a doctoral student at University of Warwick, U.K., said. Like Nazia, thousands of other men and women regularly consult her book before embarking on a culinary project -- be it shrimp malaikari, murighonto, biriyani or Chinese fried rice.

"There was a time when Siddika Kabir's book was given as a gift to anyone going abroad," said Naznin Sultana, a homemaker from Dhaka.

In this age of technology, finding Professor Kabir's recipes is even easier. Hundreds of her recipes are readily available online for Bengalis living home and abroad.

"I search for the episodes of her NTV show 'Siddika Kabir's Recipe' on YouTube whenever I want to cook something new. She always made cooking sound so easy," Reema Akhter, a resident of Sydney, Australia, said. "I am one of those who cannot read and cook at the same time."

The news of her death came as a shock to most Bangladeshis. Words of appreciation and loss flooded the social media. We all know who she was, how successful she was as an academic and very importantly, how she made cooking an easier task by writing Ranna, Khadyo, Pushti, a book that was published in 1978 but remains popular to this day.

"I took a copy of Siddika Kabir's book with me when I went to earn my graduate degree at University of British Columbia," said Mohammad Muaz Jalil, Manager, Monitoring and Result Measurement Group, Katalyst. "In distant Canada, it was comforting to know that if all else failed, there was still hope for a good meal as there was Siddika Kabir's book whose instructions, if diligently followed, would lead to a nice meal.”

Siddika Kabir's name will continue to echo in every household that loves and cooks Bangladeshi cuisine.

By Wara Karim
Published Feb. 7, 2012