BHUBANESWAR: There’s a general belief that we are what we eat. But, food writer Aali Kumar begs to differ. She believes we, as Indians, are also what we do not eat.
In a chat with session moderator and senior journalist Kaveree Bamzai, along with co-panellists, food writer-author Meher Mirza, and author-chef Maria Goretti on ‘Food Stories: What We Eat is Who We Are’, at the Odisha Literary Festival on Sunday, Kumar said caste and class, along with dietary rules, also influence what finds its way onto the Indian plate.
She said food is also absence and exclusion. For Kumar, the kitchen is a site of historical enquiry. She spoke about ‘Manasollasa’, an 11th century Sanskrit text which she described as the first cookbook written in India.
Her fellow panellists and the audience were taken by surprise when she said the book also contains a ‘rat curry’ recipe. The reaction led her to question who gets to define what constitutes acceptable food and culture. Kumar, founder of The House of Zaikanama, said our taste palates carry stories of migration, displacement, conflict and invasion. “Our present palate is probably just 300 years old. Before that, our palate and the kind of foods we would have liked would be very different.”
Mirza spoke about her book ‘Sea, Salt and Spice’, that traces Mumbai’s history through its food. Mirza said while researching about the food history of the city, she came to realise that despite having lived there all her life, there was still a lot to know when it came to food.
She said culinary educator Thangam Philip’s name emerged prominently during her research. Mirza described Philip as an extraordinary woman, who trained generations of chefs and helped build the culinary and hospitality industry when it was still taking shape.
Goretti said, “I got into food very late in life, when I had children and I had to feed them. And once I went down that rabbit hole, I didn’t want to come out.”
Talking about her experience with the culinary world, Goretti said, for her it was a way of understanding both travel and life. Recalling her years travelling as an MTV VJ, she said the first thing she did after arriving at a new place was to ask people about the best place to eat.
Kumar agreed with her, observing that food really does have the ability to connect people. She, however, noted that it was equally capable of dividing them. “Food can be highly political. Eating together can signal belonging, while dietary rules can establish boundaries.”
At the end, the speakers observed that a plate of food is more than what meets the eye; it is a map, a record of migration and an archive of social histories.