One food talk from Renaiessence ‘26 in Bengaluru is honestly making lot of people think twice about Indian food pride . Because Krish Ashok did not just speak about taste or recipes,he basically pointed at something uncomfortable sitting inside our plates.
And his point was sharp ah. India has crazy food diversity,but he argued that this diversity is also connected to troubling intolerance towards flavors outside region,religion and caste . That sounds strange first,but once you think about how people judge “real” food,it starts making sense .
Ashok also brought up Udupi and said India's first restaurants emerged there . He pointed out how public dining was not very common earlier,so people also had limited exposure to food habits outside their own circles. Basically,we were not always eating across communities like we imagine now.
Then came one line which really explains whole thing . He said,"A schezwan dosa might look odd to you today. But the most authentic sambar you can think of today would have appeared like a schezwan dosa to someone from 400 years ago." And tbh,that hits because so much of what we call authentic today was once new,foreign or just unfamiliar.
Few things standing out from this discussion:
- Krish Ashok linked Indian food diversity with resistance to outside flavors.
- Many ingredients in modern Indian cuisine came through European colonization.
- Renaiessence ‘26 also pushed discussion around scientific temper in food and health.
And this is where food becomes more than food only. We keep saying “this is not how it is made” or “this is not our tradition” but traditions themselves kept changing for centuries . Tomato,chilli,potato… so many things entered Indian cooking through outside routes and now we defend them like ancient family property .
But seminar was not only about food taste. Cyriac Abby Philips , a hepatologist,also spoke about alternative medicine and why evidence-based practices matter . He warned about dangers linked to unproven treatments that often come from cultural beliefs.
The event was organised by rationalist platform esSENSE Global and nearly 600 participants attended . That number itself says there is interest rn in this messy meeting point between science,health,food and identity.
And honestly,this whole conversation makes one thing uncomfortable. Maybe our food fights are not really about dosa,sambar or schezwan at all… maybe they are about who gets to decide what is “pure” and what is not…
