RECORDING REGIONAL RELISHES

TODAY'S kitchens are no longer bound by geography households, people Across I have moved beyond inherited recipes and regional routines, constantly experimenting with flavours from elsewhere.

- RAKSHITHA PRIYA G

For a while, global cuisines offered that excitement with their new techniques, unfamiliar ingredients, and a break from the everyday plate. But novelty, over time, has a way of wearing off.

And in that return to home food, there is now a noticeable shift across kitchens. People are beginning to revisit their regional dishes with fresh eyes, questioning what was once taken for granted and rediscovering the depth within the ordinary.

For Pratibha Jain, that moment of rediscovery was deeply personal. "Being a Rajasthani, I grew up eating Rajasthani food, and I took it for granted...

Home food is just something that is ordinary every day. You don't really see anything very special about it," she says. Having spent much of her formative years in the south, it was, in fact, South Indian cuisine, with its varieties of rasam and sambar, that felt more fascinating than the food she grew up with.

That perception began to shift years later, following a chance meeting with Chef Sameer Gupta at a wedding.

What began as a straightforward documentation project soon evolved into something far more immersive. A visit to his home in Jaipur marked a turning point in the late 2000s.

"In a week, I must have eaten around 60 to 80 dishes, and I didn't know more than 20% of the dishes. That's how our Indian cuisine is," she recalls.