Coup from the South

The rise of south Indian cuisine in global fine dining can be attributed to a new generation of Michelin star chefs who are proud of their roots, bold in their techniques, and unafraid to take their home flavours into new spaces.

- BY VINOD NAIR

In a room full of tuxedos and tailored suits, Chef Vijay Kumar is clad in a powder blue bandhgala jacket and a crisp white veshti—a quiet yet assertive statement of cultural pride, just like his food. “I never thought a dark-skinned boy from Tamil Nadu could make it to a room like this,” the winner of the 2025 James Beard Award for Best Chef: New York State tells the audience.

Kumar is among a handful of chefs with south Indian roots spearheading a “Dravidian revolution” in the Michelin-starred kitchens worldwide. From the spicy Tamil flavours of nathai pirattal (snail curry) at Kumar’s Semma in New York City to the rasam puri, a South Indian take on paani puri at Chef Srijith Gopinathan’s San Francisco-based Copra, and the halibut simmered in coconut, chilli, and raw mango from Sriram Aylur’s Michelin-starred kitchen of Quilon in London, the world is only beginning to discover the tangier, creamier tastes of the peninsular India.

For decades, the delicate layering of flavour—tempered mustard seeds, curry leaves crackling in coconut oil, and tart tamarind—had long been overshadowed by the richness of northern Indian fare on global menus. As tikkas, butter chicken, and garlic naan represented the wide gamut of Indian food in the West, the Deccan cuisine wasn’t merely overlooked; it was misunderstood, often diluted, and poorly represented beyond dosas, idlis, and vadas. These flavours travelled to the U.K. before being exported to other parts of the western world.