The British had invented the pound cake, cutlets and chops (made of fish, chicken and vegetables) which are available everywhere and is Patently Bengali. Another community which played a major role in influencing the cuisine is the Jewish community especially with their various snacks and bakery items. Across the state in any rail station you will be able to have the local puff pastries which is popular and tasty.

Traditionally cattle rearing has been a common part of a Bengali family and the result has been  wide spread range of sweets and desserts made from milk. In fact Bengali sweets are renowned and have International recognition. The most famous and widely recognized sweet is the Rossogolla. The cuisine also has excellent range of vegetable dishes as Bengal has very fertile land which helps in growing a wide variety of vegetables all year around. The most imaginative of the vegetable dish is a mixed item that is rejected parts of vegetables, leaves and even stalks of vegetables and some flowers. The Bengali style of cooking is very fuel efficient unlike lot of other Indian cuisines. As in South Asian culinary the Bengali cuisine is also dependent on spices and the most popular spices locally called the Paanch phoron, which is a mix of five different spices such as kalonji, fenugreek, cumin, fennel and black mustard. Bengal cuisine also uses a unique mustard paste in making the gravy of fish dishes. Just as tomato sauce or chilly sauces are popular all over the world Bengal cuisine has a typical mustard dip sauce called Kasundhi.

Although fish is the dominant part of a Bengali meal and the most sought after fish is the ILish or the Hilsa and Chingri or prawn or lobster. It has been said that this Hilsa the Bengalis can cook in 108 different and distinct ways!  The Hilsa though a salt water fish it goes upstream to breed and it is during the breeding season they are mostly caught and the Bengalis differentiate the quality with the river from which they are caught. For example the hilsa from river Padma is said to be the best in quality and taste. In fact when Hilsa fish is exported from Bangladesh to West Bengal, this becomes a very important news item in the local Bengali newspapers and TV channels.