Wait, is this Kolkata?

Kolkata’s food scene has got range. You can dig into 1947-era Lucknow biryani, contemporary food at cafés, and North-Eastern cuisine at top hotels

- VIR SANGHVI

The great misconception about Kolkata is that it is a parochial Bengali town. That's much less true than it was when I lived in the city, and even way back in 1986, Kolkata’s food was marked by cosmopolitanism. Very few of the dishes that people raved about — and which found fame all over India — were Bengali in origin.

The chaat, which is among the country’s best, was made by Biharis. The Nizam’s Roll (now better known nationally as the kathi roll) was made at a restaurant set up in 1932 by north Indians. The famous Kolkata biryani is roughly as Bengali as Wajid Ali Shah, the Nawab of Awadh, at whose court it was allegedly created. Chilli chicken was created by canny Chinese restaurateurs to appeal to Kolkata tastes.

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Anyone who knows the Kolkata food scene well will tell you that among its most famous restaurants are what are regarded as Muslim restaurants, which have been serving a distinctive cuisine for many decades. My friend and former colleague Pritha Sen, the noted chef and food historian who has researched the development of Bengali food, says that the pride Bengalis take in Kolkata biryani is a relatively recent development. The biryanis were always available at the famous local Muslim restaurants, but Bengalis were not always so proud of them.

Now, an entire mythology has grown up around Kolkata biryani. It was created for Wajid Ali Shah, we are told, after he was exiled to Bengal by the British, and his chefs added special touches such as potatoes (“such a delicacy”, “so expensive in those days” etc).

Most of this is nonsense. The biryanis were created in the first half of the 20th century by the men who founded the Muslim restaurants.