Putting culture and diversity back on the menu
Plus, some exciting updates
After a quiet year, things have picked up considerably for my culture and mindset session in 2024. I’ve delivered it to a bunch of brands, with the latest being Belazu following an introduction by the lovely Ravinder Bhogal with some gentle encouragement by the wonderful Jay Rayner. Ocado is next in the offing. Suffice to say, learning to be culturally sensitive, diverse and inclusive in the world of food and drink isn’t going off menu any time soon.
Pic: The definitive butter chicken recipe for the home cook, by me in National Geographic Food Traveller UK, link below
The Belazu team had glowing feedback, as they usually do. But the striking phrase in their testimonial was how the session had exceeded their expectations:
Just a big thank you for your presentation today. The teams around the building have been discussing your impact on them this afternoon and I think it’s fair to say that the talk and subsequent conversation went beyond our expectation in terms of giving context to some difficult areas in food culture and appropriation / exploitation. We have all come away with new insights into shifting our perspective and got a super clear message about understanding what represents real world value for our stakeholders and partners in working with us on commercial projects.
I left with the smug satisfaction of a job well done, and a heaving bag of some extravagant Belazu ingredients (olive is much appreciated at the moment, SO spenny!). While what we talk abut during the session is strictly between four walls, one attendee asked about how the cultural appropriation discourse would have killed off the delight that is the chicken tikka masala. This dish is, in fact, the perfect example of how cultural inspiration creates challenges for minoritised and marginalised communities and reinforces negative stereotypes. I thought I’d share it with you.
Chicken Tikka Masala is a dish created by entrepreneurial south Asians in the diaspora to feed the British (read: English) working classes. It is part of the beer and cuz phenomenon that overrode the perception and understanding of the cuisine of India. Despite many vocal chefs, food writers and social media influencers complaining about the confusion between British Restaurant Curry and Indian cuisine, the misunderstading prevails.
Many continue to think this is what Indians eat at home, prompting them to wonder how said Indians can be in good health. One of the common questions I get is “how do you eat all that food and stay so slim?”. The answer is always silence while my blood boils and steam emanates from my ears, before I explode into a rant. This is a good moment to take a silent minute to remind ourselves that India gave the world Ayurveda, Yoga, and seven Miss Universe and Miss Worlds.
The idiocy doesn’t end there. We also have non Indians going to the motherland and asking for Chicken Tikka Masala, as well as ordering it as standard at every Indian restaurant they frequent. Chefs and restaurants, who are under significant commercial pressure, often put it on the menu owing to its popularity despite the dish having no relevance or link to their concept. This further stymies their opportunity to showcase the variety and range of the cuisine of India.
Chicken Tikka Masala and Butter Chicken literally “suck the oxygen out” of Indian cuisine, in apt words shared with me by Professor Krishnendu Ray. The NYU Food Policy expert is also author of The Ethnic Restauranteur. I wrote an in depth piece about “The Butter Chicken Effect” for the Juggernaut earlier this year (behind a paywall like a lot of journalism). The best Substack writing on this comes from Beyond Butter Chicken by Perzen Patel, a Parsi food writer and caterer in Australia, and is worth a follow.
If you need a refresher on what cultural appropriation is and isn’t, we covered this when I was a guest on Rupy Aujla’s Doctor’s Kitchen Podcast. I’ve known Rupy for over a decade and he describes me as one of his “favourite people”. He’s a top guy whose work I rate highly. He also laughs loudly at all my jokes. It won’t be a dull listen for sure! I hope you do have a listen and enjoy putting it back on your agenda, like a lot of corporates are.
Some exciting updates
I started this Substack to park my recipes and long form writing in the absence of regular writing commissions. Well, in a positive twist of fate I’ve been too busy with PAID writing commissions to update it! I’ve been filing recipes with spice and flavour for Waitrose, writing in-depth features on South Asian food and food culture for Juggernaut as well as delivering commissions for Borough Market and National Geographic.
National Geographic Food Traveller UK commissioned me to write a piece on the origin of Butter Chicken, would you believe it? And it gave me the chance to set out my stall. A version of it is online if you fancy a read.
I’ve also restarted my YouTube Channel (brace brace). My ex husband and I used to film videos for it when we had an expansive semi-professional kitchen I designed in our family home. It all got a bit too much after the separation and pandemic, and I stopped. There are recipes to populate a thali going on there weekly as my Diwali gift and I hope to share more of my musings on people and the planet too.
I’m 42 subscribers short of 10,000 followers on YouTube. If you enjoy watching videos on YouTube and would like to support my work there, please do subscribe here. Oh, and please tell your friends about me!
Your advice, please!
This Substack is free as I want the themes and topics I cover to be accessible by all. Saying that, I have to prioritise paid work over writing it and it can affect the frequency of my writing here. I took subscriptions off as it was stressing me out. I’m thinking of unpausing the subscription offer for those who want to support my work, but making ALL the writing available to EVERYONE. This is an uusual strategy for Substack I know, but what do you think?
Hola Mallika. Always wonderful to read what you've been up to. Belazu seem a very appropriate brand to be considering how they can manage their way through the challenges of Diversity, Inclusion and Cultural Appropriation - as they continue to feature recipe sauces, etc from a wider diaspora. I imagine that you might think about reaching out (through your network) to other brands or supermarket chains such as: Booths, Morrisons, Selfridges Foodhall, Harvey Nicholls Food & Wine, Yorkshire Provender, Al'Fez, The Spice Tailor, Duchy (maybe Waitrose could help here), Holy Cow, Capiscana, Merchant Gourmet, Wagamama, Crosta & Mollica, Itsu. Good luck getting more traction for this initiative!