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Our sense of smell and taste connects us strongly with memory. Food can transport us for dozens of years and thousands of kilometers.
So when Amirah Islam longed for home after moving from Bangladesh to Austin in 2006, she turned to the flavors of her childhood.
With no Bangladeshi restaurants in town and even few Indian options at the time, Islam realized that she had to do something she hadn’t done before in her life: cooking when enjoying a piece of home wanted to.
She has come a long way. Islam appears Thursday on the very first season of Bravo’s Top Chef Amateurs, a spin-off from a show she has adored for years. As a result, Islam competes with another amateur on a cooking challenge.
Islam first ventured into the culinary waters by preparing simple meals using packaged mixes from the Pakistani company Shan when she was living with her grandparents upon arriving in central Texas.
First up: Murgir laal jhol, a turmeric and curry chicken that was a staple food in her parents’ home in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Islam, who was born in Glasgow, Scotland before her family returned to Bangladesh at the age of one, had long loved the idea of cooking but had little experience in the kitchen.
The novice cook started with wings and cheaper cuts until she got more skill, more money, and eventually cooked whole birds that she ordered from the New Madina Market on North Lamar Boulevard.
Islam contacted her aunts around the world for tips and recipes as she continued her self-taught cooking training. Not only did she miss the flavors of home, but the sociability and open house politics of her family’s home in Bangladesh during Eid al-Fitr, a holiday that marks the end of Ramadan’s fast from sunrise to sunset. As her younger brother’s 25th birthday arrived, she turned to one of the dishes essential to those intimate celebrations: her grandmother’s cinnamon roast chicken, a labor-intensive three-day dish that highlights the fragrant South Asian cinnamon that man rarely in. finds the states.
“I just wanted to feel the buzz of the house, because that’s how everyone is at home,” Islam recently told the American statesman while he was cooking a hot, ocher-colored crab curry that smelled of ginger, garlic, turmeric and red chilli powder and coconut milk for one Friend in the hills of Northwest Austin. “I just missed that feeling.”
The connection with her roots sparked a new passion in Islam that permeated her life for the next decade. While earning a degree in art history and advertising from Texas State University and a full-stack certification from the University of Texas, the curious and personable Islam was obsessed with cooking, consuming YouTube videos, and counting hours of television programming on the subject Meal.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Islam lost her job as a front-end developer on advertising. Another ad would change the course of their culinary journey. While scrolling her Instagram feed, Islam saw an ad for “Top Chef Amateurs” (advertising orientation, as Islam knows, is real, all of you). Islam was skeptical. She had never heard of a show like this before. That couldn’t be true.
But after getting her scriptwriter’s opinion on authenticity, Islam decided the ad for the show probably wasn’t a scam. The quick-witted Islam quipped that she had nothing to lose but all of her personal data, so she put together a cooking demonstration video and sent off the application. Four times. Just to be sure. Within a few days she heard from interested producers.
For her application video, Islam – whose Instagram bio (@scottishcaramel) reads “Decolonize One Recipe at a Time” – turned to a dish that she knew not only tasted great, but also gave her the option of a broader one Have a discussion about the kitchen and culture.
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In the video, Islam cooks Kathi kebab. She explains both the history of the Kathi kebab and how the black salt found in Bangladesh gives her dish the same umami taste that one could get from shiitake mushrooms.
Calcutta’s Nizam restaurant created the dish from grilled meat, which is then served wrapped in paratha bread and wrapped in paper to satisfy its British customers who crave the skewered street food but don’t get their hands greasy according to Islam wanted to .
It is this type of education that Islam believes should accompany a cuisine that is served in the states that does not come here. And few things annoy them more than seeing generic terms like “Asian flavors” used to describe dishes that may come from any of dozens of countries on a continent that comprises more than half the world’s population.
Islam, who signed with a literary agent after her “Top Chef Amateurs” experience and hopes to write a cookbook, envisions cooking professionally in a supperclub setting.
In this format she would cook for people curious about her history and the food of Bangladesh. And it would give Islam the space to explain their food and educate the guests.
There are no Bangladeshi restaurants in Austin according to Islam, although Islam said they would expect a fish dish, kichiri (a rice and lentil dish), red spinach called laal saag, and fuchska (fried dumplings) when one opened filled with potatoes , yellow peas and tamarind) appear on the menu.
When asked what she would think of a white chef opening a restaurant in Bangladesh or South Asia, Islam said the line between appropriation and inspiration could be defined by respect, recognition and imparting knowledge.
“Are you giving back? Do you speak of Bangladesh? Do you pay homage? Do you respect the ingredients and the places you cook? ”Islam asked. “If so, cool. If you don’t honor the country and pretend it is yours – sure, you’re inspired by Bangladesh, but you don’t talk about it or give anything back in any way – then no. ”
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Islam, whose television endeavors were inspired and made plausible by the success of Fatima Ali, a Pakistani cook and fan favorite from season 15 of “Top Chef”, is proud to represent Bangladesh on such a large platform.
“And I hope that when other Bangladeshi girls look at this, they can say, ‘Yeah, I can too,'” she said. “Especially tall girls, because taller girls definitely have a different threshold to things” they have to get around. I want people to think, ‘If she can do it, I can do it.’ “
But a word of warning to anyone who would follow in the footsteps of Islam and try to cook under the pressure of Klieg lights. It’s even harder than it looks, says Islam, who admits that watching food shows with the same passion as many sports fans.
“Now I can no longer yell at people because I know exactly what they are going through,” says Islam.
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