In the office space situated on the top floor of his restaurant, chef Joy Banerjee explains why his passion for traditional Bengali cuisine is a demanding one. “Bengali food is not commercially viable,” says the bald-pated chef, not as a complaint but more as a respectful observation on the daunting nature of his specialisation.The chef explains that the traits of a commercially-viable cuisine are that the dishes cook fast, are easily made and need inexpensive ingredients. The traditional dishes of Bengal do not fit the bill on any count.“If you take 100 gm of fish you would get two moderate pieces for a dish here but if it is for a Chinese dish you would get a big portion.” Even the simplest Macher Jhole (fish stew) needs to be cooked on low heat for a while so that the “fish releases its juices into the stew.” Chinese cuisine, on the other hand, is the most commercially viable one due to the fact that it requires only small pieces.A walk down any street in Kolkata where bargains are being constantly struck for hilsa, bapta, rohu and other varieties of fish would convince any visitor that it is the very soul of life in Bengal, and that Joy was indeed only stating the obvious.At Joy’s restaurant, perhaps aptly called ‘Bohemian,’ the effort is to make traditional Bengali cuisine more appealing among non-Bengalis as well and he brackets the food he serves as contemporary Bengali. The heavy-set man with a deep commanding voice used to be the executive chef at Oh! Calcutta, the chain founded by restaurateur Anjan Chatterjee.So despite the commercial challenges, why did he decide on Bengali cuisine? A trip that Joy undertook to Bangladesh last year searching for old East Bengal food offers a clue and throws light on the single-mindedness of his pursuit and love for his own traditional Bengali cuisine.During that trip, Joy discovered that the palate in Bangladesh has undergone a revolutionary change since it came into its own. According to the chef, the old East Bengal fish preparations were not so much about onion, garlic and heavy spices. “Earlier there were more delicate flavours as it continues to be the case on this side of the border,” he says.“The Bengali palate primarily is about fish; and meat was also always there…Sunday lunch is largely about Mutton curry and rice.” Joy explains that India cannot be gauged by one meter. A Bengali Brahmin, he says that in his experience Hinduism is a mixture of ideas and never prescribed a diet. “It never struck me as wrong to eat non-vegetarian food.”In fact, there was enough evidence in religious practices themselves that there was no sanction against non-vegetarianism. Goat sacrifice continues to be performed at Kali temples in the state. Fish is exchanged between families during weddings and is also served during shraadh (death ceremony) in the state.Then, there are many other occasions such as Vishwakarma Puja and Durga Puja when meat is part of the feast.In fact chief minister Mamata Banerjee also clarified last month that Bengal would not enforce any meat ban during the Puja festival, although till a couple of days ago Hindutva groups in the state were crying themselves hoarse for a ban on beef ( West Bengal is one of the few states in which cow slaughter is allowed, with riders).The narrative around non-vegetarianism and Bengal also explains how the diet of a modern city may have a lot to do with geography and the kind of cultural influences it has imbibed over the years. The Calcutta Cookbook written by Minakshie Das Gupta, Bunny Gupta and Jaya Chaliha has this to say about the origins of sea food and meat-eating in the capital:“There was a time when Calcutta was part of the great Sunderbans bordering the Bay of Bengal, the largest estuarine delta in the world. The inhabitants of this marshy mangrove swamp lived off a diet of the fruits they gathered and the animals they hunted. In ancient times, the hunter’s wife dug the earth for arum root, waded the ponds and marshlands for aquatic plants and caught tiny shrimps and molluscs. She took her gatherings home to complement her husband’s shikar of mongoose, wild board, turtle, iguana, hare and porcupine. If lucky she would barbecue a haunch of a deer.”“The Bengalis were amongst the foremost maritime people of the subcontinent. They navigated the rivers and seas and caught vast netfuls of fish and crustaceans, the freshwater variety in particular.”“The Brahmins at the apex of the socio-religious order are largely vegetarian and eat satvic foods. But the Bengali Brahmin found the flavour of Bengal’s sweet water fish irresistible and fell to temptation.”According to the authors, apart from the traditional cuisine of Bengal, the city has also been influenced by the British, Chinese, Mughal and a mosaic of Indian communities who settled down in the city.While much of the focus is on the numerous varieties of fish and the recipes around them, every kind of cuisine mentioned in the book has meat preparations including beef preparations.A visit to the Kalighat Temple can also provide an insight into the sheer diversity of Hinduism. A barn outside the temple houses a few goats that are meant to be sacrificed. Jay Panda, a caretaker who has been working at the temple for more than a decade, says that sacrifices are made by devotees almost every day.“On Mondays and Saturdays the number of goats sacrificed at the temple goes up to between 10 and 20 and on the day of ‘Ashtami’ (during Durga Puja) many many more are sacrificed… It’s been going on for ages. It is the tradition here.”