The Culinary Revolution: Food Culture in India

Aryaman Kakkar

The Culinary Revolution: Food Culture in India

In the summer of 2019, I attempted to peek behind the chameleon curtain and conducted two interviews with executives in the industry. With the help of Raghav Mahendru, former Head of the Food Department of the coffee company ‘Blue Tokai’ and Mr. Sanjay Behl, the Manager of the Kitchen at the Radisson Hotel, Jalandhar, I have delved into the realm of food and learnt of the culture that weaves in and out of our daily lives.

Butter Chicken. Image Source: Unsplash.

We are what we eat. And yet, we do not explore how the food we eat is made. We are yet to know what goes on behind the curtain in the culinary arts, the heart and birthplace of the mouth-watering dishes we desire. In the summer of 2019, I attempted to peek behind the chameleon curtain and conducted two interviews with executives in the industry. With the help of Raghav Mahendru, former Head of the Food Department of the coffee company ‘Blue Tokai’ and Mr. Sanjay Behl, the Manager of the Kitchen at the Radisson Hotel, Jalandhar, I have delved into the realm of food and learnt of the culture that weaves in and out of our daily lives.

Here we are talking about three things; the evolution of food, India, and the world. Food is an integral aspect of the existence of society. In the 1990s, we saw a lot of development in terms of software and the technology revolution. When Infosys came into being, it was easy noticing how the hotel industry began to grow. Eating habits governed the whole gamut of food and we were monitored by those eating habits. We had people telling us what others expected the food to be. Obviously, there are success stories but at a certain point we reach ‘expired by’. This is where we start growing ourselves in food habits, food culture, food preparation methods and decision making.

What we as a millennial generation would be eating would be different from what our parents used to eat. A lot has happened in the last twenty years due to which food has now become more modern and international with very strong roots in Indian cuisine. Taking the example of butter chicken, some people say that it is our national dish. Yet it is very sought after in the UK as well because the dish itself has grown to become an internationally accepted food today. This also shows our growth as Indians, individuals, and intelligentsia.

Food culture has changed not in terms of what food we cook per se, but kitchens now allow their chefs more freedom to be creative and innovative. This is because now employers are willing to have faith in what chefs do and experiment with creative processes. It doesn’t guarantee that they will like it but at least they are willing to try it because food is not as straightforward as cooking. There is a chef who handles the cooking aspect of the food because it’s his forte. The most that can happen is suggestions and guidance in terms of how to prepare the food but in the end, it has the chef’s stamp on it, which is something very personal.

Local food is now beginning to receive more presence and attention. We have now begun to break down food not just in terms of cuisine but ingredients as well. Fortunately, the myriad of local cuisines in India has managed to retain their purest form. Nowadays, they are better presented to the people, better defined by the chefs and are presented in the right way. On the other hand, Indian food is not popular around the globe because, at any given time, a recipe has up to forty ingredients. There are so many strong and contrasting flavours that no one can define them. In European food, definitions can be made because their food at most contains four-five ingredients at a time. This gives the people who enjoy European food something to relate to.

Americans are a lot more conscious and adventurous about what they are eating in terms of the percentage of the population. Compared to our supposed one per cent, sixty per cent of the American population is adventurous and conscious in terms of the food they eat on a day-to-day basis. This can be traced back to the number of immigrants. Foreign cuisine in terms of Korean, Chinese as well as Italian cuisine has taken hold in the USA and integrated itself seamlessly into American culture while America has no cuisine of its own.

In the end, food culture changed for the better, but it still remained true to its core; to present innovative dishes, to look out for its consumers, and make good, flavourful food. Food culture has and will always remain an integral part of our daily lives and it is imperative we learn of it before the knowledge is lost forever.

Most of India has not been affected by this change. With the appearance of new, interesting, cool foods in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities such as Jaipur (Café Quint) and Chandigarh (Nomad), people do want to eat these foods. These are very good places to start something new and then migrate to bigger metropolises. Another example can be seen in the form of the restaurants at Cyberhub, Gurgaon. Eateries such as Indigo Delicatessen, Yum Yum Cha, Cherry Comet etc all give us the opportunity to experience foreign cuisine as well as refined local cuisine. We have started to see on menus things like fresh handmade pasta, and homemade bread; all of which are not ‘out there’, but they are new. In-house bread earlier used to be restricted to five-star hotels but now can be seen in stand-alone cafes as well in locations like Cyberhub.

Also, food has become synonymous with healthy eating for everybody. If you are not concerned in that regard, then it’s like you don’t know what you are eating. The one thing the intelligentsia wants first and foremost is healthy food to eat. Even then, the definition of ‘healthy’ keeps on evolving. You don’t mind having almonds and some pure ghee in your food but at the same tie you don’t want the food to be bad. People have begun to understand the concept of a balanced diet which is very good. People want food that has medical benefits, good flavour and most importantly, they should be able to talk about it. What most people don’t know is that after consumption, hotels still monitor food for the next 72 hours; how the food has reacted to you. Until the time has passed, the hotel will be unsellable to you for the next 72 hours.