NOT SO NATIVE

WHAT IF THE INGREDIENTS WE NOW SEE AS THE SOUL OF INDIAN COOKING, THE ONES WE LOVINGLY CALL 'AUTHENTIC', AREN'T INDIAN AT ALL?

- BY CHEF RICHA JOHRI Culinary Director at UNICO

India is often celebrated for its rich culinary tapestry, woven with a complex array of spices, legumes, grains, and vegetables.

We take pride in our authentic dishes, passed down by generations, modifying them and calling them modern Indian cuisine. Each bite is an explosion of different flavors, which we call homely.

But here's a question worth asking: What if the ingredients we now consider essential to Indian cooking, the very flavors we call our own, aren't Indian in origin to begin with?

Take a closer look inside any Indian kitchen. You will find a kadhai bubbling with flavors, potatoes, tomatoes, chilies, and chickpeas, the backbone of everyday cooking across the country. Yet, every one of these has a foreign passport.

Potato

That universal ingredient found in everything from samosas to sabzis didn't grow on Indian soil until the 17th century. Native to South America, the humble potato was introduced by the Portuguese. Today, it's hard to find a home that doesn't cook it at least once a week.

Tomato

Tomatoes bring a tanginess, color, and brightness to many Indian dishes. But tomatoes are another gift from the America by the Portuguese traders. Today no kitchen or table is complete without a dal, chutneys, salad, curries, and pulao full of red, juicy tomatoes, which are very Latin in origin. Can we imagine our famous butter chicken without tomatoes?