Women Achiever: Celebrity Chef Ananya Banerjee
— By Meher Castelino
Chef, globetrotter, painter, and lawyer Ananya Banerjee has worked for BBC Good Food India as Executive Editor. Her globetrotting has given her culinary skills an eclectic nature. She is the author of two cookbooks ‘Planet Gastronomy – 100 Most Popular Global Recipes’, and ‘Bangla Gastronomy – The Journey of Bengali Food’ and has won ‘The Celebrity Chef of the Year 2018’ (Female) and ‘Home Chef Matters: Excellence in Bengali Cuisine 2017’.
2020 Goals: In India alone, there are so many different types of cuisines that are yet to be explored, like the cuisines from the Eastern part of the country. 2020 will be all about building awareness around the lesser-known cuisines of India that have been hidden from the rest of the world.
Feminism to Me: Feminism means empowering one another and growing together. As a woman who has been passionately doing what she loves, feminism is having your own dreams and following it no matter what. And to ensure that every woman out there lives their dreams, we need to motivate and encourage one another till there is equal opportunity for everyone in the world.
Cult Products: Being a chef working in the kitchen for longer hours means a lot of heat and oil. Therefore, keeping the makeup light and simple during work hours works. My go-to workday products would be sunscreen and BB cream, but for videos lots of makeup is needed. My cult products are Clinique Cleansing Balm, Clinique Smart Day and Night Cream, Clinique Foundation, M.A.C. and Bobby Brown lipsticks and eye palette.
How do you perceive beauty for a woman in 2020?
It’s all about being comfortable in your own skin. The concept of what they call ‘beautiful’ in a woman has also changed over the years. In 2020, beauty will go beyond physical features, clothing, or cosmetics; it will be all about personality and how you carry yourself no matter how you look. ‘Confidence’ and ‘comfortable’ are the two essential words.