About Us
What about us? As it says on the front page, this Website is dedicated to my mother, Mrs. Monira Begum (that's her with my sister's son Shantu). The purpose of this site is to make our family recipes accessible to all, because they are so good!
Everyone knows that home cooked food tastes way better than anything else. And yes, my mom IS the best cook in the world! Restuarant food is made intentionally bland to appeal to a wider audience, with different taste. Many people saying 'ok' rather than a few saying 'yummy yum yummo!' probably makes better business sense. They intentionally avoid intense flavors and stick to the mainstream. Some people, like me, are not interested in the 'mass market' food and same goes for the mass market recipe sites. This sites provides an alternative in authentic traditional family recipes which are packed with flavors.
Since the site's launch in July 2008, many visitors have asked me why I had this site and wanted to know about the story behind the site. This page was (and still is) my best attempt to answer those questions.
How and Why the site started
In short, I started this site because I WANT good food dammit!!
A slightly less than short version is below:
Ever since I left college and started working I have rarely stayed at my home in Kolkata, India. Othen than family and relatives, the second thing I missed the most was my mom's cooking. My first job assignment was in Jamshedpur, India, where I could afford to keep a cook at home. It wasn't great, but I'd come home to Kolkata every month and make up for it.
On my next assignment though I had to leave India for USA (Stamford, CT). I had no clue of cooking and arrived in the USA, no not with $12 and a jacket like in the rags to riches American dream stories, but hopelessly clutching a copy of my mom's recently published cook book. I would try out one recipe each day, and get tips from mom over the phone. My friends kept borrowing the book from me and finally someone decided 'that's it, I'm not returning this!'.
Then I returned to India, but went back after year and half to Woodland Hills, California. This time, I was armed with a number of copies of my mom's book. Alas, my colleagues soon outnumbered me and I was left again without a copy of my own. That's when I decided that enough is enough. I'm going to put up a website and post all the recipes there, so I can access them wherever I went.
So the idea started simply as an online storage of the recipes. But the recipes needed to be translated to english. That's when Dad (Zahirul Hasan) came in as the savior. He had already started translating moms recipes from Bengali to English. I realized that this was not a simple task, and that's when I decided that I will build a proper website. Without Dad's work in translating the recipes, this site would not have been possible. In fact without Dad's efforts, even mom's book might not have happened.
I now work in Houston, TX, for Tata Consultancy Services (tcs.com). Without TCS moving me around all over, this site might never have happened and I might never had developed interest in cooking. So I'm grateful to my company for opening up more than just professional windows for me.
Phew, that was probably too long, almost an autobiography. Anyway, that was the story of how and why this site started, and I'm sticking to it. You also received a valuable information - that I like to yak (the scientific term is "chatter monkey").
The Begum's Kitchen Team
Here's a brief intro to the Begum's Kitchen team
Monira Begum - Creator of the fantastic recipes. Owner of all the content on this site.
Zahirul Hasan - Chief food lover and motivator for writing the book, and official translator for the website.
Faisal Zahir - Website Design & Maintenance. Authoring the non-recipe sections.
Contact
Mrs. Monira Begum
Merlin River View
Kolkata 700023, India
Phone:+91 943366662593
Here's a picture of the Mom and Dad team. 
| Here's Me with Mom 
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Want to learn cooking first hand from the Begum of cooking?
Yes you can, IF...
If you are in Kolkata, India, and If you are a lady (no no, I'm not discriminating against un-ladylike females!, I just meant it as a gender differentiation - as in lady vs gentlemen). Mom is in charge of the cooking course at YWCA (Young Women Christian Association). The good thing is you don't have to be Young or even Christian. Feel free to join her classes. Just remember that there are 2 YWCAs in Kolkata, one on S.N. Banerjee road and other on Middleton Street. Her classes are in the main branch on S. N. Banerjee road.
Here's the contact
I really have no clue about the fees; YWCA deals with all that financial stuff.