056: Kankana Saxena | Playful Cooking

Dishing Podcast

Kankana Saxena's craving for food started while she was traveling a lot for her job and so, at a much later stage in life than most bloggers. Visiting those many different places, meeting new people, eating together with them and sharing stories worked some kind of magic on her appetite. Eventually, she surprised herself and her family when she realized that cooking was the stress-buster she was looking for!

Kankana's Playful Cooking blog came into existence eight years ago. She had moved to US after marrying the love of her life. Back then, her visa didn’t allow her to work. But this turned out to be a blessing in disguise because that’s how the blog started. Since then, the blog has been featured on several websites including Saveur, Huffington Post Taste, BuzzFeed Food, The Kitchn and eHow.

Kankana also collaborates with different food brands to create recipes and photograph their products.

Kankana’s blog covers a mix of cuisines from all around the world but her native Bengali cuisine has always been closest to her heart. Through her cookbook, Taste of Eastern India, she shares various Bengali dishes, from street food to daily meals and from the most popular to some long-lost dishes. She hopes to bring more awareness to this vibrant cuisine through her book!