The Culinary Chroniclers Conclave 2018: Part 2 - The Culinary Chroniclers Hall of Fame

There's an incredible amount of food-related content being generated and consumed today - more than ever before in our history! And yet, our appetite for quality content, that links our past to our present, and paves the way for our future eating habits, continues to be voracious. This demand, and the obvious advances in tools and technologies for creating and sharing content, has led a whole new wave of food enthusiasts to explore new forms, formats and channels to chronicle food. For this new generation of content creators and chroniclers to evolve, improve and push the boundaries, it is important to have yardsticks to measure against and ideals to aspire to meet and surpass!

The way we create, share and consume this content today, has its foundations in the pioneering work done by many eminent people and organisations. I thought the Culinary Chroniclers Conclave provided an ideal perfect platform to recognise their contribution, and present their work to our audience as benchmarks of quality and commitment to the art and craft of culinary chronicling.

The culmination of this thinking resulted in the felicitation ceremony that we organised at the end of the Conclave, in which we recognised notable contributions in six categories of culinary chronicling accross two bands:

Contemporary: Exemplary Initiative, Exemplary Institution/Organisation, and Master Chronicler
Legendary: Legendary Initiative, Legendary Institution/Organisation, and Living Legend

To select our first set of recipients to felicitate, we began by creating a list of nominees for each category. All names were evaluated against a series of category-specific criteria that we had defined earlier in the process. A panel of eminent impartial leaders from the food industry and various fields of chronicling; many who are themselves eminent chroniclers, with a strong sense of the qualities that should be admired and revered in those we consider benchmarks of chronicling. Our panel members included Chef Ajay Chopra, Antoine Lewis, Kalyan Karmakar, Kunal Vijaykar, Marryam H. Reshii, Chef Michael Swamy, Nikhil Merchant, Chef Ranveer Brar, Ruchi Shrivastava, Saba Gaziyani, Saee Koranne-Khandekar, Sourish Bhattacharya, Chef Varun Inamdar, Vikram Doctor and myself. We were all asked to vote for a list of nominations collected from various sources. Once all the votes came in, my team collated the results, and presented the findings.

I am extremely happy to report that all recipients of this year's felicitations were unanimous, confirming that their work and contributions were universally accepted as benchmarks in the field of chronicling!

And the first inductees to the Culinary Chroniclers Hall of Fame are… (drum roll please)

Exemplary Initiative: Archaeobroma!

Rhea Mitra-Dalal collecting the felicitation on behalf of the Archaebroma team from Sujit Patil and Saee Koranne-Khandekar

For the Exemplary Initiative, we considered contemporary initiatives that provide the necessary incentives, channels and/or platforms to promote culinary chronicles. The panel selected Archaeobroma, the first all-India conference on food as culture, as our first inductee in this category. The conference examined and disseminated chronicling of food through historical, cultural, social and academic lens. The conference spanned two days, with 16 Speakers covering 18 topics and showcased cuisines of 11 communities of India, presented by active culinary chroniclers. An incredible amount of knowledge was shared in those two days, and academic chronicling of food as a culture was brought to the forum for the first time in the country. The award for this felicitation was collected by Rhea Mitra-Dalal on behalf of the organisers of Archaeobroma - Dr. Kurush Dalal, Dr. Mugdha Karnik, Raamesh Gowri Raghavan and InStuCen. Later in the evening, an unsuspecting Kurush, who had no clue about the felicitations and had come to the venue only to pick up Rhea, was thrown on stage to be re-presented with the felicitation for this exemplary initiative! (Which we were all really happy about!)

Exemplary Institution/Organisation: The Goya Journal!

Antoine Lewis and Saba Gaziyani announcing the felicitation for Goya Journal

Exemplary Institutions that we nominated were contemporary institutions creating, collating, and promoting culinary chronicles. In this category, Goya Journal was recognised by the panel for its exemplary work. Launched in May 2016, this online publication is just over two years old and has established itself as a benchmark for quality media and content on food. The Goya Journal has a strong focus on storytelling and personal narratives, publishing stories by a range of collaborators and contributors, thus bringing forth varying voices. It chronicles food stories through an array of media: writing, photos, illustrations, videos, podcasts. The publication engages the community in chronicling, by calling for entries on stories, recipes and other collaborative projects and publishes content weekly. It has already published over 100 high quality stories in just two years!

Master Chronicler: Vikram Doctor!

Master Chronicler Vikram Doctor receiving the felicitation from Marryam Reshii and Chef Varun Inamdar

We defined a Master Chronicler as a contemporary chronicler who is constantly demonstrating thought leadership and/or setting quality benchmarks in the field of culinary chronicling. Vikram Doctor was unanimously recognised by the panel as our first candidate for the title of Master Chronicler. Coming from a long line of award winning writers, writing is in his blood. His career as a chronicler spans over two decades and his chronicling of food has always been from a perspective of great pride for Indian food culture. Through his work he tells the stories of unnoticed or underrepresented foods, and the deep cultural wisdom that exists on our culinary heritage. Once called the “finest food writer around” by Vir Sanghvi, Vikram Doctor has written numerous columns on food across various publications over the years. He has been pushing the boundaries and using new media to tell food stories, like his podcast, The Real Food Podcast on Audiomatic. An ocean of information and a treasure trove of stories, Vikram accepted his felicitation with a hilarious anecdote about his last felicitation in this field some years back!

Legendary Initiative: Rasachandrika!

Saraswat Mahila Samaj being felicitated by Dr. Mohsina Mukadam and Sourish Bhattacharyya

For the category of Legendary Initiatives, we nominated some of the most interesting and exciting initiatives undertaken in the last 30 years around chronicling of Indian culinary culture and history. The community cookbook Rasachandrika, compiled and produced by the Saraswat Mahila Samaj, was unanimously voted as our first legendary initiative by the panel. Saraswat Mahila Samaj was founded in 1917, the 1st edition of Rasachandrika, authored in Marathi by Smt. Ambabai Samsi, was published posthumously in 1943 and new editions are still being reprinted even today. It is a legendary initiative because it has been written, designed, edited, translated into Hindi and English, produced and published through the collective efforts of a community, for the members of the community and others, has today become an iconic representation of the (Saraswat) community’s culture and cuisine. It was so heartwarming to see a member of the Saraswat Mahila Samaj come on stage, beaming to receive the felicitation on behalf of the whole community! We were as thrilled to be presenting it as they were to receive it!

Legendary Institution/Organisation: UpperCrust

Rozina Gaziyani collecting the felicitation from Chef Ranveer Brar and Nikhil Merchant.

For the Legendary Institutions category, we made a list of institutions/organisations which have defined what we know of Indian cuisine, and shaped our perceptions around it through one or more products. Upper Crust was selected by the panel as the Exemplary Institution/Organisation. UpperCrust which launched in January 2000 began with Busybee’s vision to showcase India’s true culinary diversity on a global playing field. This vision was manifested in the 200-page high gloss quarterly, containing well researched articles, mouth-watering pictures, striving to meet world standards. UpperCrust established itself at the ripe time when worthwhile stand-alone restaurants were just beginning to make an appearance, and the masses were discovering the joy of fine dining outside of five star restaurants. And UpperCrust was there to equip them with the most relevant information. Today, in addition to a large circulation they also have a huge subscriber base. The magazine is sold in every corner of India, and in capital cities of the world. It is read on-board national and international flights and has to its credit an envious client and advertiser list.

Living Legend: Jiggs Kalra

Kersi Marker collecting the Living Legend felicitation on behalf of Jiggs Kalra from Ruchi Shrivastava and Chef Ajay Chopra

Our list of Living Legends consisted of those early adventurers who set the stage for the chroniclers of today - the pioneers! And the title of Living Legend of Culinary Chronicling was given to none other than the Czar of Indian Cuisine, Jiggs Kalra. He has pioneered culinary chronicling as we know it in India today. India’s first food columnist, he paved the way for journalistic writing on food, in newspapers and periodicals, with his first column being What to Eat and Where in the Evening News of India, Mumbai in 1971. It was no secret that favourable reviews from him were highly coveted, as they could pave the way for a restaurant’s success. His prolific work as a food writer spans beyond columns, into several books too. He has authored 11 titles on Indian cuisine including Prashad: Cooking with Indian Masters, a culinary bible for Indian chefs today. As a chronicler, he worked across various mediums, including of course, television - he produced the first-ever food show on Indian television, Daawat, on Doordarshan. The series showcased regional food and its nuances, to make the audience aware of India’s vast culinary heritage. Due to its success overseas, many foreign companies also bought the telecasting rights. In hindsight, I really could not think of anyone more appropriate as our first Living Legend in the Culinary Chroniclers Hall of Fame.

Mr. Jiggs Kalra, our first Culinary Chroniclers Living Legend, sharing a few thoughts on a video message

While Mr. Kalra could not attend the Conclave in person, he very kindly recorded and sent us a video message earlier that day, sharing a few thoughts and stories from his journey as a chronicler over the years. For someone so accomplished to share such a humble message was really heartening!

It was an extremely proud moment for me to recognise and felicitate these eminent chroniclers. They are decidedly cornerstones of great work and success, and we recognised them because we look up to their work and hope for chroniclers to learn from their journey!  It was something that IMHO was too long in coming!

I also want to extend a special thank you to the Godrej and the Vikhroli Cucina teams, our panelists, my team at A Perfect Bite, and everyone else who helped give shape to this idea of the felicitations. And I must say here that this is just the beginning, I am sure there will be many other people and organisations that should be recognised and we hope that all of you will help us identify and add to this list in the future!

In the next few posts I will continue to spill more details about happenings on the day of the Conclave, so stay with me!