Why Taste, worth Rs 15,000, is more than just a coffee table book

At Rs 15,000, Taste is more than just a coffee table book; it's a cultural critique that challenges the idea of taste and its exercise. Edited by journalist Lakshmi Chaudhry, CEO of Splainer Media and co-founder of Firstpost, Taste presents essays on the politics of taste alongside visually striking elements like oversized Bollywood posters, maps, postcards, and colored lenses.

The book is designed by Kriti Monga and features contributions from renowned figures like Nobel laureate economist Abhijit Banerjee, chefs Garima Arora, Manu Chandra, Prateek Sadhu and Thomas Zacharias, novelist Aatish Taseer, artist Subodh Gupta, photographer Sujata Setia, MacArthur-winning artist Shahzia Sikander, conceptual artist Mithu Sen, Kannada writer Vivek Shanbhag, and New Yorker critic Parul Sehgal.

Taste delves into subjects such as the homogenisation of Indian food, the death of the Delhi drawing room, and the rise of luxury hotels. It also explores the global histories of the pineapple, Madras checks, the cummerbund, and bandhani. With only 500 numbered copies, Taste is a limited-edition artifact that critiques the "antilia effect" while being a luxurious physical object itself.