Popular dishes such as tandoori chicken, butter chicken, and so-called “Moghlai cuisine” that are familiar to every Indian restaurant devotee occupy only a tiny section of the vast and diverse world of Indian cuisine. (And some are relatively recent creations to boot.) Like Chinese cuisine just two decades ago, Indian restaurant food in the west is limited to just a few regional traditions and suffers from many misconceptions.

Author Colleen Taylor Sen will delve into some of the myths of Indian food, such as its universal ‘hotness’ and the prevalence of vegetarianism, and will question whether such a thing as Indian food even exists. She’ll also show how for 5,000 years the cuisine of the Indian subcontinent has been an ever-evolving blending of foreign and indigenous ingredients and techniques. The presentation will be accompanied by dishes that may be unfamiliar to many of the attendees.

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Colleen Taylor Sen is a Chicago-based food writer and historian specializing in South Asia. She is the author of six books, including Food Culture in India; Curry: A Global History; A Guide to Indian Restaurant Menus; Turmeric: The Wonder Spice (with Helen Saberi) and Street Food Around the World: An Encyclopaedia of Food and Culture (with Bruce Kraig). Her latest book Feasts and Fasts: A History of Food in India with over 100 illustrations is published by Reaktion Press (London).

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Presented by
Colleen Taylor Sen, author
Saturday, January 17, 2015
10 a.m. to Noon
At
Kendall College, School of Culinary Arts
900 N. North Branch Street, Chicago
(Located just north of W. Chicago Ave. at N. Halsted St.)
Free Parking in lot on north side of school

Cost of the lecture program is $5, $3 for students and no charge for CHC members and Kendall students and faculty.

To reserve, please e-mail your reservation to: Culinary.Historians@gmail.com