Siddhartha Mukherjee

The New York-based oncologist and Pulitzer prize-winning author talks travel, cooking and his love for a good Old Delhi chaat.

- Raj Aditya Chaudhuri

How do you answer the question ‘Why I Travel’?

To broaden yourself at every destination. I try to buy a book about every place I travel to—and hopefully read it before I arrive.

You’ve been very busy the past few years—research, teaching, physician’s duties and writing books. Where do you go on your time off?

I love to travel with my family. It’s difficult, but we do our best to take a family holiday every year. Our most recent vacation was to Venice—a city that I have admired for a long time. We fell in love with Venice when my wife [artist Sarah Sze] was installing in the American Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2013. We lived there for two months, in an apartment on Via Garibaldi. There are particular walks and boat rides that we take over and over again when we visit the city. The owners of most of the restaurants in that neighbourhood are our friends now, and every meal is like a family meal.

A travel memory you hold dear…