Chasing Michelin Stars: Why Indian Cuisine Has Failed To Conquer The World https://share.google/XZre2JIlYd9Q3E6Ws
• The work done by Michelin-star chefs is undoubtedly impressive. However, when it comes to Indian food, Michelin’s approach often reflects cultural ignorance, as if judging Indian cuisine while wearing horse blinders. Their framework was created within a narrow Western worldview and later presented as a global standard.
• A single rules-based order may be debated even at the United Nations, so it is naïve to assume that one yardstick can evaluate every food civilisation on Earth. More than 75 years have passed since global institutions were formed, yet many cultures—including India, one of the world’s oldest and largest food ecosystems—were never treated as equal stakeholders in defining such standards.
• Indian food traditions were historically dismissed as “primitive” and “unhygienic” simply because Indians eat with their hands. This judgement was made without any attempt to understand the science and sensory intelligence behind hand-eating—where the human body is not just tasting food, but also measuring temperature, texture, softness, and readiness through touch.
• Michelin Stars are a Western concept rooted in a spoon–knife–fork culture. That framework evolved around table etiquette, plated service, and often a meat-heavy food history. It may be relevant within that ecosystem—but it becomes incompatible, inapplicable, and irrelevant when imposed upon Indian culinary philosophy, which is shaped by Vedanta, Saatvik-Aasaatvik wisdom, and a deeper understanding of human senses.
• India moved beyond barbarianism long ago—absorbing knowledge of 84 lakh species, shifting priorities, and evolving food practices that increasingly honoured plant-based nourishment and spiritual restraint. Civilisations evolve differently; one civilisation’s tool-based dining cannot become the universal definition of refinement.
• Food is not a tyre that must perform the same on every road. For Indians, food is sacred—Ma Annapoorni, the cosmic mother, feeding all 84 lakh species without discrimination. To judge this sacred relationship using a narrow external scale is not sophistication—it is blindness.
• Humans alone exceed 8 billion people and represent thousands of cultures and philosophies. Therefore, evaluating food through one “global standard” that ignores the sensory system—especially TOUCH, a critical human sense—is fundamentally flawed.
• For these reasons, Michelin Stars may remain a Western marker of excellence, but they are not a universal authority on food, and they are certainly not qualified to define the greatness of Indian cuisine.
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An introduction to Indian Food
Ma Annapoorni
Food in India is Anna. Anna is prasadam, an offering from god. From both the hands of Ma Annapoorni to every living organism in the cosmos, feeding 84 Lakhs species alike. She holds the grain in the left hand and feeds every living organism with the right hand. Its only with her blessing and benevolence the entire planet is fed and nourished without discrimination.
• Indian food is an extension of our sacred Vedic culture since ages, the use of bare hands to eat food is fundamental to begin with as our culture never robbed the freedom to the sense of touch while enjoying a meal.
Every culture using spoon, fork and knives deprives by robbing the very feel factor while enjoying a meal.
Similarly, some Asian culture too rob the basic joy of meal by using chopsticks.
What does KFC know about finger-licking experience? Ask any Indian to demonstrate, then you will find unique & innovative ways to lick the fingers as people who eat withy fork, spoon & chopstick knows the least than man using bare hands. It is the least crime one can do, until one encounters a south-Indian in general & a Tamilian in particular. What does slurp mean can give the heart attack to an average western casual onlooker as several PhD thesis can evolve on slurping alone. If this exclusive phenomenon alone is the tip of iceberg then imagine what and how much content can be written on the use of enjoying a meal with bare hands.
Let me share a glimpse as to what I mean robbing the sense of touch while enjoying a meal.
To know & understand what is Indian Food, we need to know what is food & understand the Indian cultural values with food. Food is divine to every Indian as food is not savoured only by mouth but from all senses. The ritual begins,
A person holds a lota ( a round jar) holds the water on the palm, pours some water in the mouth to rinse and spit it in a straight line and then after washing hands, legs and face sprinkle some water on the head & reaches by standing before the plate/Banana leaf, with the folded hands preparing and getting ready to sit on the ground with crossed legs with a silent prayer in mind to several energies,
Anna daata sukhi bhava- obeisance to all the persons providing food in the chain right from bhoodevi, sub god, rain god, vayu, farmer, carriers, cooks, and the host
Om Narayana/Krushn samarpayami-the food which I shall be savouring is being offered to Lord Vishnu/Krishna as the holy offering.
All these prayer reaches to Ma Annapoorni before meals (Annapurne sadapurne,
Sankara pranavallabhe, Gnana Vairagyasiddhyartham, Bhiksham dehi cha Parvati, Aham Vaiswanaro bhutwa, Pranwam dehamasritaha, Pranapana sama yuktaha, Panchamyannam chaturvidham.) The story is best expressed vide YouTube links as a conversation between Lord Shiva & Parvati: (403) Did You Know Mataji Once Fed Shiva Herself?#shiv #shiva #shivparvati #sanatandharma #godstories #god - YouTube, (403) The Mysterious Story About Goddess Annapurna #mythology #youtubeshorts #shorts - YouTube, (403) Why Lord Shiva begged to Mata Annapurna - YouTube
The moment a person sits on the ground with crossed legs the free space needed in stomach for easy digestion gets created which prevents overeating. The moment food is touched with bare hands, feeling begins the guts along with respective organs (ears, eyes, tongue, stomach. Liver, heart brain and others) gets activated as the body learns the celebration is about to begin. The hand releases gastric juices, mouth begins salivating. The first morsel begins the symphony and ends with five-fingers licking experience which lights up the face beamingwith vivid joy.
This is the experience which is robbed while eating with spoon, fork, knives & chopsticks.
DAWAT-E-SHAHENSHAH-CLOUD KITCHEN KA BAAP
EVERYONE HAS RIGHT TO EAT HEALTHY, TASTY & GOOD FOOD
SERVING FOOD IS SERVICE THAN BUSINESS
INDIAN FOOD IS ALL ABOUT
1. PREPARING FRESH
2. COOKING FRESH
3. SERVING FRESH &
4. EATING FRESH
OTHERWISE IT IS NOT INDIAN FOOD
OUR RESOLVE IS TO
PREPARE FRESH
COOK
SERVE
EAT
Deskilling the Indian cuisine through standardisation based on SOP is the way to go global
BACKGROUND
As a passionate foodie, I began my journey in 2006 by opening an outlet focused primarily on premium non-vegetarian Hyderabadi cuisine. My research was intentionally confined to Indian cuisine, rooted in Indian culinary science. During this period, hundreds of saatvik and asaatvik recipes were researched and standardized.
Through serendipity, I invented an energy-inefficient radiant heat gas burner system in 2006 while closely studying the thermodynamics of charcoal. This exploration involved designing a wine-glass–shaped charcoal stove, through which I understood the philosophy of combined convection and radiant heat. This understanding ultimately led to the invention of a clean, green, and energy-efficient radiant heat gas burner compatible with LPG, natural gas, and biogas. By 2008, the technology was perfected and deployed in the backyards of Dakhani Degh Kitchen in Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram.
In 2014, the brand AGNISUMUKH was conceived, created, and launched. By 2015, it had emerged as a national and global phenomenon, gaining international recognition under the umbrella of the United Nations as a clean and green technology. The deployment of this innovation has the potential to bring about a phenomenal reduction in carbon footprint.
It was only after meeting Ramamoorty Anna that I gained the insight that popularizing vegetarian food could have a far greater impact on mitigating climate change. The consumption of meat-based food is closely linked to a methane-driven circular economy, whereas vegetarian food is primarily plant-based. This necessitates the cultivation of more plants, which serve as a better, cheaper, and faster carbon and heat sink compared to reliance on fossil fuels.
This newly acquired wisdom strengthened my resolve that my re-entry into the food domain would begin with the promotion of vegetarianism. There exists a fundamental difference between India and the other 192 countries under the United Nations in this regard.
India is a global leader in vegetarian cuisine, as it requires profound knowledge of flora and fauna. It is the only country where plant-based food is not consumed primarily as salads, but as a main course. Across the length and breadth of the nation, the principal meal remains dal-roti-chawal—lentils, Indian bread, and rice—expressed in diverse forms, textures, and traditions.
Even the most traditional Indian non-vegetarian meal consists of nearly 80 percent vegetarian food, with meat typically serving as an accompaniment. This distinction reflects not only India’s unique food habits, but also a deeper difference in thought, philosophy, and approach to life itself.