The Food of Bharat: Recipes from the Vedic Era to the Modern Day

Looking at the development of Indian cuisine through distinct eras, this book helps describe Indian cooking in terms of social and cultural development.

Bharat is the earliest known name of what is now called India. Author Helly Raichura–a chef and restaurateur who was born and raised in Gujarat but now lives in Australia–divides the land’s history into five periods:

• Pre-Vedic and Post-Vedic

• Trade and Migration

• Mughal Invasion

• Colonisation

• Modern India

Her recipe headnotes connect food such as ghee, the rice flour bread called pathiri, and cauliflower pickle to influences within the region, from religious movements and immigration, to conquest and modernization.  

While unmistakably a cookbook rather than a standard history, The Food of Bharat has the power to excite greater interest in both culinary and cultural development.

Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.