Tuesday evening saw a conversation cross borders, sexual identities, and cuisines as Delhi’s Italian food doyenne Chef Ritu Dalmia (currently in Europe), hotelier Keshav Suri of the Lalit Group, New York-based serial entrepreneur and proud queer chef Surbhi Sahni, New York restaurateur Maneesh K Goyal, and Kolkata-based radio host and columnist Sandip Roy met over Zoom and Facebook Live. They spoke to and reminisced about food, sexuality, and queer perceptions on dining out as well as coming out of the closet with Myna Mukherjee, Curator Director, of En Gendered, a Transnational Arts and Human Rights organisation.
The conversation, Queer as Food (held on July 20) looked to examine the role of food and dining out on queer culture and community as well vice versa and over the course more than an hour’s dialogue it discussed all that and more.
Dalmia, who was one of the six petitioners whose petition challenged and helped overthrow Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (an outdated Rajera law that criminalises same-sex relations) and has long has been a passionate advocate for the normalisation of queer relationships, recalled the societal taboos of stepping out with a same-sex partner. “You were always scared to reach out and hold their hands at a restaurant, because what would people say? It took me a long time to become comfortable with that idea, and definitely, the overall opening up of society becoming more open to the idea of playing a big role.”
Indeed, all of the speakers, food stars of South Asian descent and of queer persuasion, have all played their part in opening up society’s mind to alternate sexuality, be it in India or among the diaspora. For instance, Roy, who laughingly called himself “an imposter over here, because I have not really been involved in the food industry, just written and talked about it occasionally,” also happens to have edited Trikone, the world’s oldest South Asian LGBTQ magazine in the world, for over 12 years. Founded in 1986 in the San Francisco Bay Area, Trikone has helped change and influence members of the community who trace their lineage back to South Asia in no small way.
Then, of course, there’s Keshav Suri, the Lalit Group scion, whose Keshav Suri Foundation has helped people of different marginalised communities, from the LGBTQ to the disenfranchised to the differently-abled, across the country. As previously covered in The Morning Standard, over the course of the pandemic, KSF play a huge role in reaching out to people from these communities, members of whom were often ignored by authorities and more traditional-minded NGOs.
“We have distributed up to three million meals across the length and breadth of the country, using a few million kilos of vegetables, fruits and grains,” shares Suri, whose Delhi-based foundation also provides free mental health counselling for those in the LGBTQIA community affected by the inevitable mental strain of the pandemic, be it losing their jobs or being in isolation with homophobic families. Their latest plans involve setting up a scholarship for the members of the transgender community so as to allow them the same opportunities to everyone else. Watch this space for more.