On a regular day, if you Google the word ‘Curry’, you get about 43,80,00,000 results in approximately 0.84 seconds. But what exactly constitutes an authentic curry?
To trace the evolution of curry and politics of food over the years, Asian Voice exclusively spoke to Michelin Star Chef, Vineet Bhatia and Mallika Basu, author of Masala and Co-Founder Sizlspices.
Vineet Bhatia said, “That’s the same problem I have. What is curry? Curry is a generic name. Anything that comes into a bowl which is dark brown or deep red or orange in colour, and it goes into a bowl with lots of sauce, and may be some protein and vegetables, it suddenly becomes a curry. I remember when I used to work in India in the mid 80s at The Oberoi, all the foreigners would come and say that we want to have chicken curry. So I would tell them that there are a thousand versions of chicken curries, what exactly do you want?”
“Curry in Britain is used as a blanket term used to describe all kinds of British Indian restaurant food. It is not Indian food, it is a very specific taste and type of cuisine that is developed for the western market and it is absolutely delicious. But of course, it isn’t Indian food. The issue I have with it is that it is used interchangeably to describe Indian cuisine, which of course it is miles away from,” said Basu.
Vineet stated, “When I came to the UK in 1993, I found that Butter Chicken was not even red in colour, it was yellow. People who were cooking were not Indians. People would order Poppadom and Mango Chutney, Mango Lassi, Onion Bhaji, Chicken Tikka, Samosa, Biryani and Vindaloo. So without opening their menus, 99 percent of the restaurants you go to could and eat without even checking the menu.”
Politics of food
Indian cuisine is now considered a fine dining cuisine. It is counted as one of the best cuisines of the world.
“Why does Indian food have to cost £5 a meal? Why can’t it cost £100 a meal?” Vineet asked. In 2004 when he opened his restaurant, the first article that came out read ‘£100 for a curry’ and everybody felt that his business wouldn't flourish because it was too expensive. “We were extremely thrilled, because we knew we had broken the glass ceiling of Indian food trying to be cheap,” he chuckled.
Mallika Basu thinks that as generations, we’ve become used to paying less and less and less and buying more. “We eat too much food. Spend more, buy fewer things and hopefully with the pandemic, lots of people are feeling that when push comes to shove, how little do you need to get buy. You have a sack of atta and a pack of dal and you’re pretty much sorted. If something is cheap, you need to ask yourself, why it’s cheap.”
Vineet explained that many restaurant owners in London couldn’t carry forward their legacy because their children didn’t want to join the family business and instead chose to take up other jobs at the supermarkets and Uber. “They didn’t want to do it because people would tell them you stink like a curry. When I came in here, they looked at you as someone smelly from a third world country and thought that curry smells awful and smells of spice and kachcha (raw) haldi (turmeric) and dhaniya (coriander) and it’s oily and greasy. I tried to establish that that’s now how we make Indian food in our homes back in India,” said the Michelin Star Chef.
“Today when someone says the term curry, I smile and take it with a pinch of salt but it is a racist remark. I find it insulting. Anything below Mumbai is Madrasi. You go to Bangalore, Calicut, Hyderabad, Coorg, the food changes. We try to put boundaries in our food,” he added.
In the past century, the generation of grandmothers and parents who lived in the first half of the century, bought raw-unprocessed spices, grinded them on their own in their courtyards and preserved them for years. In 2020, when those customs and traditions have taken a backseat, primarily due to the nature of jobs in the world, Mallika runs her own spice company. “There’s a huge myth in the spice world about single origin spices which basically means that you get all your spices from the same part of the world. Because growing spices has so much to do with the growing of the plant and the climate and soil quality, agriculture plays a huge role. I test every single spice,” she said.
During the lockdown in England, she came up with five spice blends and one of her absolute rules was to not use any cheap ingredients as fillers. “Things like salt, sugar and crushed olive leaves are mixed with rice powder to make spices heavier because they come cheap. My rule is, if I want to buy spices and herbs, I want them to be 100 percent pure,” she affirmed.
When Chicken Bhel Puri was basically soup and Gajar ka Halwa was expected to be served cold
Vineet shared a couple of instances of his early days when he came to the UK of how people perceived Indian food. “I started working in a restaurant that was built in 1951. They were serving Chicken Bhelpuri. It was soup! They put cooked Chicken Tikka, onions, peanuts, murmura, dhaniya and tomato soup into it.”
“In Indian culture, we start with something meetha (sweet). So I made Gajar ka Halwa. I used ghee, pistachio, almonds, cooked the Gajar (Carrot) and added milk and decided to serve it as a complimentary dish to all guests. I served it to a foreigner. He called me and said, “You don’t know how to make a Gajar ka Halwa”. He said you never serve Gajar ka Halwa warm. I should be served cold as a cube.”
Basu feels that in recent years, the concept has really changed. She said, “I’ve lived in London for 24 years now, and I’ve seen huge changes not only in London, but even outside of London and it is wonderful to see, because their eyes have really opened up in terms of what food India can offer. Their taste preferences have been challenged. There’s a lot of awareness for cultural appropriation. People are genuinely more interested in the provenance of cuisine, dishes, their taste and flavours.”
Today, the way we plate food has changed as compared to 15 years ago. Plates are chosen keeping in mind that the customers can take a picture and upload on Instagram. Cookbooks and hand written notes have been replaced by iPads and tablets. Yet, Mallika said, “I don’t believe that there’s anything like Indian food. I don’t think Indian food exists. I think the food of India exists.”
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Quintessential Indian food by Mallika Basu
I would choose five very popular dishes from five popular tourist destinations. I treat it as a kind of taste and palate challenger.
- I would make one very Delhi dish like a ‘Maa ki Daal’ or butter chicken which is very Punjabi.
- I’ll do something very Bengali, like a Kosha Mangsho or a Chhola Dal.
- I would do something from Goa for sure, like a nice fish curry or a Goan Beef fry.
- I would definitely do something from Kerala like a Molee or Toran because it is a nice and easy side dish to do.
- I love the food of Andhra Pradesh so I’d make something like a Baghare Baingan and of course Biryani is a nice centerpiece. Biryani has such a footprint over India.
