Appetite takes Bangladeshi food, professional wrestling, and parasocial fascination and somehow presents them as the most seamless confluence of elements in a story. At the centre of the novel is Zarina, who works as an underpaid, exhausted prep cook in New Haven. At night, she whips up fusion food with hints of the Bangladeshi cuisine she grew up eating and immerses herself in the world of her wrestling hero, Sierra Myst. The story offers a nuanced and compassionate examination of fandom, power dynamics, and the intoxicating allure of obsession. Inspired by the likes of Yellowface and The Bear, Paramita imbued her love for talking about food, researching menus, watching food videos, and coming up with her own recipes within the walls of this story.
Relationship with Writing
I’ve been writing stories in my head since I was a child. As an only child, books kept me company and I loved coming up with different ideas. That continued in school; creative writing assignments were my favourite in class. By fifth grade, I knew I wanted to be an author. My parents never discouraged me from wanting to become a writer. I studied creative writing in undergrad and got an MFA in Creative Writing and I have been teaching writing for the last few years. Appetite is the story of a friendship between a chef and a professional wrestler. I wrote it a few months after I finished grad school, when I was lost and I wasn’t sure what to do with my career. These are topics extremely important to me. I ended up starting it after I finished reading the novel Yellowface by RF Kuang. It talked about power dynamics while discussing the publishing industry and I couldn’t help but want to become a part of it myself.
Paying Homage to Bangladesh
I was born and raised in Bangladesh and it’s always important for me to have Bangladeshi characters and culture at the centre. In Appetite, Zarina, the protagonist and narrator, is a Bangladeshi immigrant in the US. She grew up in Bangladesh, she cooks Bangladeshi food, she also cooks fusion food where she applies Bangladeshi techniques to US-based ingredients or vice versa. She’s extremely passionate about spreading the word about Bangladeshi food, and in a lot of ways her Bangladeshi upbringing shows up in how she operates in American society.
Bringing Together Food and Wrestling
Wrestling came first. I was part of the wrestling fandom for a while. I’d be on Twitter and Tumblr in my early 20s, posting GIFs, talking to other fans, and reaching out to wrestlers. The Internet gives us such easy access to people! I wanted to recreate a novel with that world. When plotting what else would be going on for the main character, I wanted a creative career. As a writer, I want to be around artists and talk about creation. And as I said, food is my favourite topic to research and discuss. I just combined two worlds I’d been a part of and two topics I wanted to cover and learn more about. They go pretty well together. Cooking and wrestling are both experiments! And the book is about the characters trying different things to figure out who they are.
The Rollercoaster of the 20s
I wrote this book in my late 20s and it’s coming out when I’m 31. I wanted to write what I knew. I think it would be hard for me to write a book from the perspective of someone in their 40s or 50s because I haven’t lived that life yet. It was a time in my life when I figured out a lot, but had to face struggles to get there. I wanted to pay homage to that, and remind people who might be facing similar circumstances that they are not alone, they will find their people, and it’s okay to make mistakes in the process.
What’s Next
I’m working on another novel and at the same time I’m just enjoying promoting Appetite and basking in all of the changes and excitement that’s coming with it. Writing has always been something I’ve done by myself, for myself. There is a lot about the public-facing nature of authorship that I’ve never dealt with and I don’t want to rush myself to write a new book while I’m in this wild and sometimes anxious mindset. I’m always journaling though, and writing down observations in my notes app. I try to keep my Substack updated. I think what’s next is that I will always be a writer and I will be writing things. And hopefully some of those things will find my way to readers.
This is an article from the August EZ. For more such stories, browse the EZ here.
Words Neeraja Srinivasan
Photography Ruby Gonzalez Hernandez
Date 17.9.2026