Comment § Established in 1924 § Why Let Science the Food Available in India Today Is Disruptaparty Global in Its Scope
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HINDUSTAN TIMES, NEW DELHI 16 hindustantimes SATURDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2018 comment § established in 1924 § Why let science The food available in India today is disruptaparty global in its scope. But is it better? There are as many New Years The one new development in 2018 in the sector globally as there are cultures has been the triumph of premiumisation s the Earth completes its journey around the ter quality, canny restaurateurs, food com- sun, ready to embark once more on its annual RACHEL panies and entrepreneurs have offered us a LOPEZ new mantra: premiumisation. trip, people around the world are preparing to VIR In theory, this sounds great: “You don’t celebrate the beginning of another new year. SANGHVI likethe mass-produced food that is flooding the market? Don’t worry! We have a range of However, January 1 is the new year only accord- premium products / dishes for you!” ing to the Gregorian calendar, which was first Sadly this canbean evenmoreunsatisfy- ing option. Often, it is just a simple con. introduced in 1582. While it is true that the Gregorian calendar hiswastheyearwhenmorepeo- Here are some of the things we find most hasA now been adopted as the civil calendar used for official pur- plethaneverbeforeatefoodthat irritating about the current wave of‘premiu- was not made in their kitchens. misation’. poses by most countries, there are a num- Some of this had to do with the Cold-pressed juice: Is it really that much ourtake restaurant boom and the fast healthier? And evenifitis,isitworth a 300% ber of different calendars widely in use food explosion. But there were premiumontheprice?Themarketthinksit across different regions of the world, leading to the celebration of Talso the food delivery options. Why cook at is. Frankly, we are not so sure. homewhenyou can useyour smartphoneto Truffle oil: If we see another menu that many New Years throughout the Gregorian calendar year. order pizzas, tacos, sushi rolls or biryani? offers truffledfries,wewillhavetoresistthe Iran (one of the few countries that have not yet adopted the Did this mean we ate better? urge to rush into the kitchen and smash Well,we certainly ate very every bottle we find. As all Gregorian calendar), celebrates its New Year Nowruz on the day differently from the way our chefs shouldknow,truffle oil is of the Northward Equinox, usually March 20 or 21, which marks parents did. They usually not made from truffles. It is a cooked dinner at home and nasty synthetic product that the beginning of spring. This New Year’s day is also celebrated by probably did not know what a uses inferior oil and a chemical n In 2018, we certainly ate differently from the way our parents did. They usually cooked Zoroastrians across the world including Parsis in India. The Bali- ‘spicy prawn tempura roll’ compound extracted from dinner at home and probably did not know what a ‘spicy prawn tempura roll’ was and were was (in that respect at least, petroleum,whichmimicspart instinctively suspicious of food cooked in anonymous kitchens they had never seen HT PHOTO nese New Year Nyepi is also celebrated during the month of they were like the Japanese, THE YEAR of the complicated aroma of who don’t know what that is THAT WAS real truffles. Watch out for name-dropping chefs. Most factory. Yet, they will be packaged as pre- March, and falls on the lunar new year based on the Saka Calen- either) andwereinstinctively Any chef who uses it should of the people who claim to have worked at mium and will cost the earth. dar. In India too, the new year is celebrated in the months of suspicious of food cooked in be ashamed of himself. And Noma, Osteria Francescana, etc were stag- Sois there nothing we arehappy about on anonymous kitchens they had never seen. anychef who destroys the distinctive flavour iers,unpaid interns who are kept on for a few the food scene this year? March-April on the same day under different names in different On some level, as much as we enjoy the of Indian food with this nasty chemical is a months to do the dirty jobs that real chefs Well, there is a lot to cheer about but regions such as Ugadi (in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karna- varietyof today’sfoodoptions,we share our talentless hack. But hey! You can use the don’tlikedoing— peelingpotatoes,chopping frankly, it’s the same stuff we cheered over parents’ concerns. Many of us (at least, the word ‘truffle’’onyourmenuandextractlots onions. Stagiers rarely cook. last year: fun restaurants, simple but fla- taka), Navreh (in Kashmir), Gudi Padwa (in Maharashtra) and foodies among us) recognise that the current of money from gullible customers for a Gourmet shops: A growth area in the age vourful ingredients, a discovery of some Cheti Chand (Sindhi New Year). Similarly, the Tamil, Punjabi, food boom is based on industrialised produc- so-called ‘premium product’. of premiumisation. These usually break regional dishes, etc. tion.Thefastfoodplaces arealwayschefless Avocados: Enoughalready!Yes we know every rule of good eating. The food is not The one new development in 2018 has been Maithili, Odia, Malayali, Nepali and Sinhalese New Years are also by definition and many new restaurants it’sthe mostexpensive vegetablein the mar- gourmet. It is merely ‘imported’. And more thetriumphof premiumisation,a process by celebrated in the Gregorian month of April to mark the beginning have found it hard to recruit talent because ket, but avacado bhel puri? Really? Just often thannot, it is overpricedrubbish which which bad food can be made to cost a lot more. of the frenetic expansion of the food sector. because something is expensive in India no true gourmet stores abroadwould stock: And badchefssellingthemselvestothegulli- of spring. The Islamic New Year falls on Muharram, Gujaratis So yes, the food today is different and doesn’t mean it is sophisticated or ‘pre- disgusting supermarketcheeses, vegetables ble with hype and misrepresentation. much more globalin itsscope. But is it better? mium’. on their death beds, and so on. Perhapsnextyearatleastthefoodwillbe celebrate New Year the day after Diwali, Chinese New Year is on Or is it justblander, with variety compensat- Name-dropping: Do you really care if a The pastry boom: If you see a shop that better! the new moon day of the first lunar month, Tibetans celebrate the ing for an essential lack of subtlety and fla- chef worked at some fancy place abroad? sells overpriced cupcakes and desserts, be vour? Because some people recognise that Especially when he won’t say what he did very careful. Chances are these are indus- n [email protected] New Year as Losar somewhere between January and March. the foodboom hasnot necessarilyledto bet- there, and it hasn’t helped his food any? trial sugar / maida fat bombs made in some [email protected] There are as many New Years as there are cultures; with each culture choosing to mark the turning of the year in its own way. CULTURALLAND SCAPE Each of these calendars has tried to grapple with the mathematics tion of a cult around the Progressive Artists Group and their younger contemporaries of the earth’s revolution around the sun. The time that the earth and colleagues, and the celebration of a takes to complete one revolution has proven to be pretty hard to handful of artists as representative of some The Indian artworld isdead. of the most lively and active decades in post- break into equal pieces so that all calendars have had to add some colonial Indian art,” Ranjit Hoskote says. “The result is an excessive desire for the mechanisms to ensure that the seasons show up around the same Long livethenew art world work of a few artists. Since most of them are, time each year. Hindu calendars add an extra month once every rather disobligingly, no longer with us, the demand for their art is met by other means. four years, the Gregorian one has leap years…Essentially it isn’t There is no burgeoning of young collectors eager to This explains the alarming increase in fakes always at the end of the actual year that we celebrate the turn. But attributed to Souza and some of his peers.” support artists. But there are reasons to feel hopeful Fraudulence, empty baubles, relentless why let science get in the way of a good party. hype… the cultural landscape inherited by 1980s and the dawn of the 21st century. The Indian millennials is strewn with pitfalls. VIVEK tipping of the scales is evident in India, They are taking charge of something akin to MENEZES where roughly 450 million of them comprise a grand mansion fallen on hard times, with the largest generation ever produced by any toxic waste pooled in the corners. But here MOHIT SUNEJA country in the history of the world. An is where this famously idealistic genera- framed! astonishing moment of convergence will tion’s community spirit, and collectively happen in 2020, when India’s population will irrepressible search for meaning, might officially become the youngest in the world wind up actually providing necessary anti- and smartphone penetration will effectively dotes. ive 25-somethings walk into a gallery reach 100% of these young consumers. At the Serendipity Arts Festival on the full of masterpieces and immedi- Everything we know about human Panaji waterfront, I’ve been struck by how ately pull out their smartphones. nature reiterates that young people are tirelessly committed the youth is to what There’s no punchline. This isn’t a highly changeable. So it’s hazardous to pre- they believe in. I’ve also been impressed by Fjoke, or a lament.