Indian Food Culture

There is a great deal of current interest in the topic of diversity, but corporate diversity training programs are not the best fit for all audiences.

Encountering unfamiliar beliefs or practices can be challenging and there are now more barriers to getting to know our neighbors in person than ever before. This course is designed to provide online enrichment materials that address practical, concrete ways of building bridges.

The most effective way to step out of one’s comfort zone is through education and entertainment on neutral topics, such as food or art or holiday traditions, conducted in a neutral “safe” space. While there are lots of online groups formed with the express intent of creating diverse networks, in practice, homogenous groups are talking amongst themselves, but not talking to each other.

So, there might be any number of reasons why you might benefit from learning more about the rich history and diversity of Indian culinary traditions.

• You have a coworker who is of Indian decent and you’re hoping to discover some shared interests so as to create a more inclusive work environment.

• You’re trying to eat healthy… and you’ve heard that Indian food features a wide variety of vegetarian dishes or, you’ve heard about the health benefits of some spices and you’d like to know how to use them in your cooking.

• You’re bored with the same old take out and/or you’re bored with the same old shows on TV.

• You’ve always wanted to travel to India and you figured, quite correctly, that this course is cheaper than a plane ticket.

So, whatever your personal motivation is, I’m glad you found your way to this point and I’m excited to be your guide in what I hope to be an entertaining and transformative experience.

About the structure of this course:

We will be breaking the lessons down by menu categories: Appetizers, Vegetarian Main Dishes, Non-Vegetarian Main Dishes, Breads and Rice Dishes, Beverages, and Desserts.

First off though, we will begin by addressing three overarching topics that will help to make sense of things by putting the ingredients and techniques into a relevant cultural context:

• Spice levels

• The differences between typical North Indian and South Indian cuisine. Influences of:

  • Geography

  • Religion and politics

  • The British

• · Language

I will also be providing external links to references, recipes, and other topics of possible interest as we go along.

So, by the end of this course, I guarantee you will have a wealth of trivia and conversation starters at your fingertips.