There was something deliciously familiar in the recent post by Padma Lakshmi from a dhaba somewhere between Delhi and Jaipur. While tucking into a plate of chaat and a vegetable paratha, the former supermodel, food writer, and TV host rated the latter as “highly mediocre.” It was the pickle, she said, that saved the day. We have all been there – at restaurants far away from home, on long journeys, at hostels and campuses, and on high-altitude treks – where the only fix for a meal that could go horribly wrong is the achaar, or chutney.
Award-winning Indian restaurants around the world now make their own condiments – served with chef’s compliments and a backstory. E-commerce and reality TV shows have opened up a whole new world of fermented and dehydrated goodness. Think Dalle chillies from Sikkim, Chunda and Gor Keri from the west, the sweet and tart mango pickles from Bengal, pickled lemons, onion, guava, pineapple, ber and imli shalgam-carrot-gobi pickles made with rare, exotic and family recipes. Handmade, hygienic and sealed with a kiss of nostalgia.In her many vlogs from her New York kitchen, Padma tosses up mango chutney, thecha and the like – introducing her viewers to the explosive flavours, intricate textures, and inherently artisanal nature of this pantry staple. Elsewhere, Gordon Ramsay uses pickle oil as a drizzle, Nigella Lawson recommends sweet mango chutneys to elevate weekday meals, David Chang has used green chilli pickle as a palate cleanser; and legendary French chefs are fans of our humble mint-coriander chutneys. Pickles are also the unsung heroes of in-flight menus; their sharp, hot-sweet-sour taste profiles perfectly cure high-altitude taste-bud numbness.During her visit to India in 2023, Gigi Hadid went viral after she shared a picture of the lavish spread of chutneys and pickles, saying: “If events don’t have chutney options, I’m not going anymore…”Evidently, a tiny jar of soft power is the ultimate cure for a “mediocre” world.
