George Bernard Shaw once said that “There is no love more sincere than the love of food,” and the implication behind this message is a lot stronger than what meets the eye at first. Love for food is defining because we identify with the food we eat. We have heard the phrase ‘you are what you eat,’ and while this may not be physically true, there is a more profound significance of this concerning our culture and our identity.
One of the strongest determinants of our identity is our culture. There are several factors which affect our cultural identity, and one of the most striking components would be the food that we eat. However, are we losing parts of our identity by choosing not to eat Indian food? It is not an uncommon fact that our generation tends to choose western food over traditional Indian cuisine. Given a choice, most of us would opt for pizza or sushi as compared to rice & daal (lentils).
Why does this disparity occur? Even as individuals, we pride ourselves on our culture, our upbringing, and our community. However, what is it that we put at stake when we choose foreign cuisines?
According to several surveys conducted by news channels and firms, such as NDTV Food and Ipsos, 70% of Indians choose western cuisines only because of the ease of preparation. Dishes from the Indian cuisine demand a series of skillsets that are not only challenging to apply while cooking but also skills that need to be used with meticulous care.
However, it isn’t only the ‘ease of preparation’ that has caused this massive change in taste and preference. In fact, it is the notion of “western sophistication” that influences this change. Along with its delectable flavour, people are globalising and modernising themselves to suit the modern world. By consuming different cuisines, people tend to become more accepting of the world as it is, and also more open to other cultures. Moreover, it promotes inter-cultural connections. Many chefs curate fusion dishes now, where two or more cuisines are culminated to form a unique dish. Just in Mumbai, there is a restaurant which fuses Bengali & French cuisine: an unlikely combination of cuisines that has an extremely satisfying end-result. By incorporating different dishes in our meal, we are opening the doors to a world of cultural acceptance.
While these may fascinate us, we need to realise the consequences of only consuming western cuisines. India is famous globally for its exotic dishes across the various states. From the North to the South, each province in India offers a delectable creation. Some of these recipes date back hundreds of years as well. By leaving these meals behind, we risk losing our ancestral history and culture. True, modernising cuisines and fusions have their advantages, but we might end up losing the elements that built us up in the beginning. We risk losing a very significant part of our identity.
It may sound funny. Who could have thought that food can make up our identity? The counterargument, however, will surely surprise you. Each food item we eat has a particular significance in our mind. We subconsciously tend to designate emotions to the different meals we eat, and it is no surprise to find out that emotions make up our identity. We all have something called a “Food Identity,” which is a reflection of our culture, our celebrations, our values, and our beliefs.
Losing such an essential part of ourselves and our culture would be disastrous, but so would losing our global adaptability. Like everything in nature, we need to strike a balance between these two strands. We need to preserve our own identity and culture, but we need to modernise our tastes as well. Fusion food offers a promising scope which enables this balance, but we must return to native meals from time to time: not just for this balance, but also to preserve this unique part of ourselves.
