Punjabi food’s game changers

From chicken & dairy fixations, the pre-histories of tandoori naan & butter chicken...Loss and reinvention has evolved Punjabi cuisine. Notes from a talk on how the community picked up new ingredients & habits.

- UTHAMA SANKARANARAYANAN

At the Heritage Gathering hosted by Ikk Panjab, Connaught Place, the air was thick with nostalgia—and the aroma of curiosity.

When archaeologist and culinary anthropologist Dr Kurush Dalal took the stage, he peeled back centuries of flavour, myth, and migration to reveal a truth often ignored in our search for “authentic” Punjabi cuisine.

“Most people think Punjabis wake up and brush their teeth in butter chicken gravy,” he said. What we call “traditional” Punjabi food, he said, was a product of evolution—shaped by invasions, trade, colonisation, and displacement. “There was no makki di roti or sarson da saag in the Harappan period,” he said. “Maize came to India only in the colonial era. The farmers of ancient Punjab ate jau di roti with saag—it was practical, local, and rooted in what they had.” That blend of practicality and adaptability, he said, is what defines the Punjabi palate.