It is difficult or rather impossible to understand India’s food without any sense of India’s history and culture.
Over the millennia, India had been invaded and colonised many times, which have subjected this ancient civilisation and a modern nation to varied cultural influences. Indian culture’s innate ability to assimilate and absorb varied ideas and influences is reflected in various facets, one of which is our diversified culinary character.
In post-modern digital India, this diversified culinary character of our country has received a further momentum through influences of globalisation. Today we are not only loving Mughlai cuisine, but are also eagerly lapping up Thai, Mexican, Japanese, American, Greek, Spanish and other exotic cuisines.
These days a significant section of Indians have developed a penchant towards delicacies like tom yam kung (Thailand), gyros (Greece), sushi and sashimi (Japan), jamon iberico (Spain), macarons and baguette (France), to name a few, which not so long ago were largely foreign to our palates.
The country has witnessed the mushrooming of restaurants serving international cuisines, which are patronised primarily by the well travelled youth who have developed a taste for some of the exotic cuisines during their overseas travels. Ashok Malkani probes the rising popularity of international cuisines in India, explores the reasons behind this trend, and discusses the future of these cuisines in the Indian food service industry through industry feedbacks.
It doesn’t deserve a mention that eating out culture in urban India has gained momentum during the last two decades. And now thanks to globalisation and the growing potency of Internet and social media, eating out in India has much more room for experimentation than it had a decade or two earlier. This has been one of the reasons for paving the growth in popularity for a number of international cuisines across India’s food service industry.
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Healthy Food - An Attempt to Meet Diners' Desire
Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3), one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations in 2015, was about "Good Health and Well-being". This could be said to be an eye-opener and the source of making people aware of maintaining their health, which became more pronounced due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Consuming healthy food, since then, has become a significant - if not imperative - element in lives of almost everyone. And this healthy and nutritious food is also playing a significant role in the success of restaurants. Diners are now becoming more particular about the food they consume, making the F&B outlets offer a diverse and appealing menu of healthy food options. Ashok Malkani tries to evaluate how the restaurants and chefs are meeting this desire for nutritious food by customers and what are some of the healthy food options.
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