For the love of food: Bengaluru college community saves local cuisines

BENGALURU: Did you ever know that the small ayira meen, found in paddy fields of the Chettinad region, is cleaned by letting the fish swim in coconut water and then cooking it?

It’s these gems of wisdom inherent to traditional cooking that Swad, a Bengaluru-based student’s movement, initiated by Department of Hotel Management, Christ University, has been working to preserve for the past three years. Launched in December 2014, the aim of the group is to document food stories, promote and embrace local consumption of food. Last week, to celebrate its third year, it hosted an artisanal product fair that included handcrafted cookware from Shillong, handmade and healthy gourmet popcorn.

“Swad is inspired by the slow food movement’s international Terra Madre Day. In India, we often forget our diverse and deep food traditions and instead focus on learning and embracing international cuisines. Our aim is help future food professionals, culinary enthusiasts understand the importance of local, sustainable and ethical food,” says Kerwin Nigli, program coordinator, Department of Hotel Management, Christ University, and founding member of the club in Bengaluru.

Based on these principles, for the past three years Swad has undertaken different journeys in Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Maharashtra and Karnataka under its programme Khoj to explore and document food cultures and stories in. A case in point was the discovery of Anand Dum Biryani in Hoskote that has been running for over a decade and serves the aromatic Indian rice dish from 6.30 am. “The preparations begin from 1 am and 500kg of it gets sold out in a span of two hours,” says Ankita Gangwani, student coordinator, Swad, who went for the trip.


The club which grew from a six- member team to 30 has food related events like Daawat, which presents Indian traditional cuisines to foreign delegates throughout the year, and Safar that has conducted events like festival of must-have foods from India and festival of Indian millets. Says Behzad Tarapore, 24, an alumni of the department and the club, “Being a part of Swad helped me deep dive into learning about Parsi food, my own cuisine. The initiative gave me an insight to study the origins of my own cuisine and community,” he says.

Besides working toward preserving traditional food, the club also organises farm visits to help students connect with food producers and understand food chain. With an aim to raise awareness about urban food wastage, the club organises a community cook out called the Disco Soup, during its events. “A concept borrowed from Slow Food Youth Network, excess food produce is collected from grocery stores, restaurants and other points of wastage. This is cooked into a soup for everyone to highlight the crisis of food wastage in India, especially when many go hungry,” says Shivani Unakar, 21, a student at the hotel management course and one of the first student members of the group.