A Deep Dive Into India's Culinary Treasures

In an age where, thanks to Instagram, anyone comfortable in front of the camera takes on the mantle of a food critic, Sona Bahadur is a rarity. Her new book An Invitation to Feast (Aleph Book Company) reminds us what genuine food criticism entails — travelling around the country, spending time in the kitchens watching and talking to the best of chefs as they create their culinary magic, exploring the ingredients to their minutest details, sitting with the hosts and tasting the preparations in their authentic setting, whether it is in restaurants or at homes, and then writing about it in a style that is anecdotal, warm, and engaging to produce a work that is pleasure to read.

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Bahadur, who achieved fame a decade ago when she transformed the BBC Good Food magazine's local edition into the finest culinary magazine in the country, journeyed through the length and breadth of India to report for this book. Its genius lies in the simplicity of both the subjects and their treatment. The author explores interesting stories behind 11 common dishes that most Indians are familiar with — Butter Chicken, Dosai, Chhole, Goan Fish Curry, Undhiya, Biryani, Dhansak, Shami Kebab, Vada Pav, Smoked Pork and Rasgulla. And in the treatment, she transforms these everyday fares into glorious delicacies by taking us to the city that it is most associated with, and into the kitchens of the people and restaurants who have spent long years perfecting the dish and their variations. For the best Chhole experience, for example, she takes us to homes and restaurants in Amritsar, for Shami Kebabs naturally to Lucknow, for Undhiya to Surat, Ahmedabad and Mumbai, for smoked pork to Guwahati, Dimapur, Shillong, the villages of Meghalaya, and Mumbai, and for biriyani to Lucknow, Rampur, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Calicut.

An Invitation to Feast is a masterclass in food writing, up there with the best of culinary journalism in India. Bahadur's only failing is that she didn't have a videographer tailing her prandial perambulations. Or she would have also been an Instagram celebrity by now.

Here's an excerpt from the section where she travels to Calicut to explore its famous Thalassery biriyani.

Thalassery Mutton Biriyani With Faiza And Chovakaran Moosa

North Kerala's Thalassery biriyani is a kind of Malabar-and-Middle East union that reflects the region's Arab influence.