Indianising global food

In my last article I wrote of the need for cordon bleu schools in India to promote excellent technical skills, the making of a fine pastry, and other essentials; but part of a new vibrant food culture is the need to be inclusive. To introduce people who otherwise would stick to Indian home cooking and show them the range of global cuisine, whether it be hummus, or tart tatin or tofu, this is something which will promote a wider sensibility.

The question is though whether through that wider sensibility you lose out something of your own: your own culinary traditions. Recently, I was at the launch of a book on international vegetarian cuisine, a second volume by Asha Khatau, an accomplished cook, teacher and author. A recurrent theme in these recipes was to slightly Indianise some of the dishes to make it more palatable to Indians. Fusion is very much part of modern sensibility provided it isn’t at the cost of traditions.

I grew up in England in the 60s and English food had the unfortunate reputation of being the foulest cuisine around. But there was a glimmer of hope — the writings of the great Elizabeth David, author of The Omelet and the Glass of Wine. In her books on Mediterranean cooking she conjured up a magic world of piquancy and vibrant colours, of exotic ingredients like red peppers bathed in golden olive oil, of the sun and a hint of sex.

The jury is out on whether Elizabeth David influence was a good thing or not.  AA Gill’s the renowned English food columnist argument against her was that there was nothing wrong in traditional English cuisine; there was a great tradition of animal husbandry, excellent beef, pork and lamb, game, great dairy produce including some exquisite cheese, clotted cream and such like. 

The war changed all of that, causing all those traditions to wither away as they were deemed not economical.  Good butter, for example, was replaced with margarine; chemical preservatives were introduced in a big way making a cuisine which was so dependent on the quality and freshness of its ingredients almost inedible. In this dire situation came Elizabeth David who proclaimed a continental tradition, causing her English readers to turn back on their own rich traditions, which were rendered moribund and never quite revived.  I  am happy to report that there is a revival in the cheese making and husbandry.

In contemporary Indian I see a greater threat to local cuisine from an overreaching Punjabi tradition than global food which, apart from the ubiquitous pizza and noodles, have not enjoyed huge mass popularity.  In fact it is often the reverse, to make certain cuisines like Chinese acceptable you have to Indianise them and that is the key to the success of Chinese cooking in India.