Fatima da Silva Gracias is a historian with a doctorate in the domain of Indo-Portuguese history. But some of us know her as the author of the Cozinha de Goa books. “When I presented a paper called the ‘Trail of Aroma’ at an international seminar, many people suggested that I should write a book on Goan cuisine,” she says. While Cozinha de Goa — History and Tradition of Goan Food was published in 2011 (its third edition was recently released), her illustrated second book Cozinha de Goa — A Glossary on Food came out four years ago, digging into the names, origins and influences of the cuisine.
Gracias, who is in her early 70s, was not always interested in food, though. “My mother was an excellent cook. When I was a teenager, she kept encouraging me to learn how to cook, but I wasn’t interested.” However, when she lost her mother, Gracias stepped into the kitchen. “My mother left a book with recipes, but the measurements were in pounds, not kilos,” she laughs. Trial and error helped her perfect them. Today, she continues the tradition with her own collection of recipe books.
