Professor Krishnendu Ray is a leading authority on Indian food in India and abroad. He is the Chair of the department of Nutrition and Food Studies at NYU. He was a faculty member and the Dean of Liberal Arts at the Culinary Institute of America. He teaches at the Slow Food University in Bra Italy and has lectured at SOAS London and Frankfurt University Germany.

He is the author of The Migrant’s Table (2004) Curried Cultures (2012 with Tulasi Srinivas) and The Ethnic Restaurateur (2016). He is working on his next projects on Indian Ocean Cuisine and Street Vendors in Cities of Asia and East Africa.

Professor Ray is an engaging story-teller expertly weaving biography and anecdote with insightful data-driven cultural analysis. Based on his biography of being born in the state of Odisha in India and having lived in half a dozen Indian cities including Kolkata and Delhi he will paint a picture of Indian food as seen from up close. He will underline the vast regional differences across the 22 linguistic regions and many more foodscapes of India showing how in fact most Indians are not vegetarians although there is a strong taboo against eating beef that emerged in the contest between Buddhism and Hinduism more than two millennia ago.

Additionally using vivid visual materials he will outline an intriguing rice/wheat/millet line in India which is also associated with fish eating or vegetarianism.

Come prepared for a stimulating conversation with lots of time for Q & A.

Kindly join in 5 min before the scheduled time tickets are non refundable. If at all one misses the scheduled time or due to any technical glitch one cannot view the episode then we are sorry but we will not be able to share the recording. Tickets are non refundable.