Appropriation vs Appreciation: Chef Keith Sarasin’s Passion for Indian Food

https://thecookscook.com/columns/a-chef-writes/meet-chef-keith-sarasin/ chef proprietor of Aatma, an Indian pop-up restaurant in Nashua New Hampshire, founder of The Farmer’s Dinner, celebrated YouTube star, and author of five cookbooks, about his passion for Indian cuisine.

With a deep passion for the food and culture of the Indian subcontinent, Chef Sarasin has honed his skills through extensive research and study, working with top food researchers like Dr. Kurush Dalal, and celebrity chefs like Maneet Chauhan of the TV shows Chopped & Tournament of Champions to expand his knowledge and abilities.

In addition to his books, he is currently filming a documentary-style show, Finding India, which chronicles his personal journey as a chef, from overcoming tragedy to rediscovering his passion for cooking. 

This article is part of a series of interviews we conducted with this remarkable chef.

Sukeli,  from the Vasai region of north Mumbai is a unique form of preserved banana, peeled and sun-dried before being wrapped in banana leaves.

What can you tell us about your evolution into Indian cuisine. What lead you into down that path?

This is my passion point. Indian cuisine in America is a lot like where Chinese food in America was 50 years ago. There’s an incredible book called The Ethnic Restaurateur by Krishnendu Ray It explains that we’ve prized a sandwich over a torta in America. What we see in America, most definitely when it comes to Indian food, is a lot of assumptions that tend to be myths. For instance, Indian food is spicy, that it is curry, that is has one bread called naan (naan actually isn’t even Indian.)

It’s the greatest cuisine of all time. Almost every Indian restaurant has cut, copied, and pasted a menu with slight variations here and there. That’s because from a historical standpoint. Indian food has been marginalized to North Indian, influenced by the series of chefs who came from Bangladesh to train in the North and subsequently went on to own restaurants in the UK and then in America. So we’re not privy to South Indian food, with its coconut, curry leaf, black pepper, fennel, and all these wonderful flavor profiles. We’re not privy to northeastern food, which resembles a lot of Malaysian and Chinese flavors. We’re not privy to Western Indian food from Maharashtra. It’s rare to see street food like vapa, which you would find in Mumbai.

We have this echo chamber of Indian food that does a massive disservice to a country that really is the greatest cuisine of all time.

How do you open up that space and educate? What’s your approach?

First, I’m one human being who’s a white guy who lives in New Hampshire, which is the second whitest state in the USA. I’m lucky to have a decent social media platform and a decent YouTube channel where I can just go off and explain all these wonderful things from an educational standpoint. I show people my trips to India and the diversity of food beyond Chicken Tikka Masala. I’m one person, and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I will never be the ambassador of Indian cuisine. I can only share my passion. It’s important to know our expectations. If I expected to be the Brand Ambassador for Indian food, that would lead me down a trail that wouldn’t make sense because it’s not me to my core. All I can do is share through social media, through the people who attend our pop-up dinners at Aatma, which is the Hindi word for soul. 

So, is sharing a form of appreciation rather than appropriation for you? 

I love the topic of appropriation versus appreciation. You cannot appropriate food. Appropriation, in its definition, means to take without asking permission, right? 

What Indians eat in a modern context is not Indian. If you look at aloo, a potato dish, you will see that potatoes don’t come from India. Cauliflower was brought there by the British in the 16th century. Carrots? Same thing. Brought to India by the British. The marcha or the chili? Pepper that doesn’t come from India. It comes from the Americas, South America. So we look at all the things that intrinsically are the backbones of modern-day Indian food and say  ‘appropriation,’ but it doesn’t actually fit. I educate through history. I’m a history nerd who masquerades as a chef.

What creates authenticity?  Now certainly, we can talk about the bastardization of food. I’m making a falafel here. Is that falafel authentic? Is it the ingredients that go into it? And this is a great question. How is food authentic if it has no ingredients are indigenous to that area?

How are we cooking food that’s authentic in America? What is authenticity from a historical standpoint? If you boil that down, the fact is that food isn’t authentic. The better word is traditional. [In Indian recipes] there are techniques from the Indian subcontinent, for instance, nukka and tarka, that are a kind of oil-and-spice-infused tempering. That tempering technique is very much seen throughout the annals of time in the Indian subcontinent, so appreciation is giving homage to all of these wonderful chefs who have come before.

We’re in a renaissance of Indian food. Or call it awakening. It’s happening in America right now. My good friends Chintan Pandya and Vijay Kumar from Tamaka and Sema are showcasing food far beyond butter chicken and naan in New York City.

That’s the beauty of the cuisine. I appreciate the community that has come before me and the incredible people who cook dahl better than I will. This food is woven into the fabric of who they are. It’s kneaded into the naans. It’s pressed into the chapatis.

This is their soul and their essence.

That’s how we appreciate versus appropriate.

The 2024 Diwali Feast Special at Aatma Curry House

starts Chicken Dum Biryani—juicy, marinated chicken layered with saffron-infused rice, slow-cooked to perfection.  For veggie lovers, the Veggie Dum Biryani is equally bold, with perfectly spiced layers of basmati rice and marinated veggies. And to finish,  a Sweets Sampler: Maple Gulab Jamun, Kaju Katli, and Besan Ladoo- a Diwali celebration on a plate!