A celebrity chef who is changing the perception of Indian food in the US said he owes a big deal to President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle.
Vikas Khanna, chef, restaurateur and cookbook author, was part of a panel discussion on Day Three of the Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet, in association with the Victoria Memorial Hall and The Telegraph, on Monday.
“Many Americans had bad experiences with Indian food. The media projects brown chefs as people who do not know how to cook.... What helped me personally is President Barack Obama and his wife’s love for Indian food,” Khanna said at a session titled “India in a Kitchen”.
Khanna; Chitrita Banerji, author of books such as Bengali Cooking: Seasons and Festivals and Eating India; and Mita Kapur, author, columnist and founder of Siyahi, a literary consultancy, were in conversation with Sneha Singhi, owner of Paris Cafe.
“How do you think Indian food is viewed overseas,” Singhi asked the panellists.
Banerji, who grew up in Kolkata and got her master’s in English from Harvard University, said Indian food was viewed differently in different places.
“I live in America and so I have the American perspective.... Certainly, for a very long time in America, there was a very limited perception of Indian food as served in restaurants. People who came to other people’s homes had a different idea. I think this is a natural thing for any immigrant cuisine,” she said.
Banerji talked of Indian chefs opening restaurants in big cities like New York. “But heartland America is still not aware of too much variety or the subtlety of Indian cooking,” she said, also acknowledging that a “door had been opened”.
Kapur, who has edited Chillies and Porridge: Writing Food, an anthology of essays on food, said: “The perception of Indian food being complex, nuanced and not as simplistic as it has been portrayed, that process is beginning. We have stellar chefs like Vikas.... They are trying to project the ingenuity and creativity that comes with Indian cuisine....”
Khanna stressed the economics of the food industry in the US.
“If somebody was very wealthy and was to put money into restaurants, they would go and play a safer game, with Italian food, more local Mexican cuisine or Chinese cuisine. For big companies to put money on my face, so much has to be to and forth... But the change happened. Me winning (Michelin Star) six times consecutively (since 2011) and loudly pronouncing it... Then, chefs around the world are winning,” he said.