Nothing fishy about it: Chef Shrimoyee Chakraborty’s new docu-series breaks stereotypes surrounding India’s life, food, culture
Express News Service
Despite being raised in a traditional Bengali home, chef Shrimoyee Chakraborty hated fish curry. She didn’t care much for her mother’s cooking either. Her disdain for conventional Indian food, turned into shock when Chakraborty moved to Manchester to do a Master’s in Economics.
Restaurants passed off cream-clotted, artificially coloured dishes as Indian food. The dormant chef in her was offended at the misrepresentation of a vast culinary heritage. She decided to take matters into her own hands, literally and asked her mother for all the traditional recipes cooked at home. Soon, her university room became
a gastronomic haven.
Sick of the Western interpretation of desi food, the chef-broadcaster-producer’s new five-part docu-series called India Bites, strives to re-imagine Indian food. Chakraborty, who opened her restaurant, Calcutta Street, in London in 2016, when she was just 25, wanted people to understand the India she grew up in. Her restaurant became popular and Chakraborty became a regular on TV.
“I was making guest appearances on Win It, Cook It With Chef Simon Rimmer and was selected for the final round of The Taste, but the restaurant shut down because I fell sick. As one door closed, another opened in the form of the show, India Bites. It is a much bigger medium to talk about bona fide Indian food in all its glory,” she says.
India Bites presents a thread of conversations with people from different walks of life, telling their stories of struggle and triumph, where food is omnipresent. Even though the idea was to travel to different parts of India to shoot the series, Kolkata and Mumbai became the focal points, since they were closest to her heart.
The first episode, for instance, is about immigration and how people take along a big part of their culture, including recipes, when they move. Here, Chakraborty has a friendly chat with French chef Pierre Labail from Suzette Bakery, Mumbai. The episode is about India as a melting pot of cultures and how ex-pats like Labail lead a full life here.
It also illustrates how India accepts and loves all cuisines and dishes, a case in point being the popular French crepe. From French to Parsi food, the narrative moves to the popular Military Cafe in Mumbai where baker Nicole Mody talks about the history of India’s Parsis and their food, especially signatures such as mutton keema pav, scrambled eggs and mutton bheja fry, which fid place in India’s cosmopolitan culinary ethos.
Then there is Harry Hakuei Kosato, the founder of sushi and More in Delhi and Mumbai, who relayed their love for Sushi in India. When talking about the global table laid out across India, how can one miss the Indo-Chinese street food of Kolkata?
The show goes beyond food, and has an urban touch, according to Chakraborty. All the characters are from varied backgrounds and add colour with their unique personas. There is Mumbai-based Aarifa Bhinderwala, the pioneer of pole dancing; actor Imaaduddin Shah, one half of ‘Madboy/Mink’, India’s leading electro cabaret-disco-funk duo; and actor Jim Sarbh, known for his fearless film choices.
The episode on beauty is a revelation, where Pamela, a model, talks about the discrimination she faced based on her skin colour. Another episode is on homosexuality where people talked about their claustrophobic struggles.
“I also wanted to focus on expats in India. When we think of immigration, we only think of one going from India abroad, but people also migrate to India, choosing a better life here,” says Chakraborty.
The most challenging episode dealt with home cooking. “It had to look aesthetic while keeping the cooking authentic. I didn’t want to sanitise it,” says the Indophile expat, adding that she also wanted to normalise the use of hands to eat. Chakraborty hopes India Bites will change the perspective of outsiders about India, its life, food and culture. The second season of the show will cover the hill foods of India. She is aiming high.
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