Of Shakespeare, Theatre and Curries: The Unwavering Contribution of Madhur Jaffrey in Promoting India Abroad

When we think of globe trotters there are so many names that come to our minds. One such personality is Bimal Mukherjee, a man who cycled around the world and presented before the world an India, which was strong and had strong people. Mukherjee’s endeavour is a part of a larger concept called Track II Diplomacy where non-state actors play a major role in establishing cultural links between nations. A similar attempt has been undertaken by Madhur Jaffrey, a person who has been a subject of History, Herstory to be precise in her own right. The following paragraphs comprise different facets, incidents and points from her life that makes us understand the massive role played by women in the portrayal of their country’s image abroad.

Madhur Jaffrey, born Madhur Bahadur is an actor, a food and travel writer and also an eminent personality. Her accolades as an actor include the prestigious Silver Bear for the Best Actress for her acting in Shakespeare Wallah from the Berlin Film Festival. As a recipe creator and an author of several cookbooks her biggest achievement can be ascertained to her book An Invitation to Indian Cooking in the James Beard Foundation’s Cookbook Hall of Fame. As a global citizen and as someone who has been the reason for cordial ties between United Kingdoms, United States of America and India, she has been awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2004, and of late the Padma Bhushan by the Indian government in 2022.

She represented the modern Indian woman – educated, cultured and emancipated. Her associations with the film industry were also disparate. Her days as a thespian had trained her for this. Her film Shakespeare Wallah was produced by Merchant Ivory Productions. Legendary actors and thespians, Geoffrey Kendal, Felicity Kendal and Shashi Kapoor among others were an intrinsic part of this organisation. This production house was largely responsible for portraying India and her culture abroad to the Western audience. Shakespeare Wallah as a film when presented to the world revealed the nuanced intricacies of an Indian life. This film and especially Jaffrey’s acting contributed to the creation of the tangible South Asian heritage.

Jaffrey introduced to the West the nooks and crannies of Indian cooking. Jaffrey was born at a crucial juncture of History when the heydays of colonial rule was waning and India was to ascend on the path of decolonisation. She had seen the Partition and the changing contours of Delhi. But these testing times brought with it some gastronomical delights namely Moti Mahal’s Butter Chicken and Tandoori Chicken. Jaffrey while documenting food of India did not forget to incorporate these new additions to the Indian cuisine.Her cooking style represented a peculiar amalgamation, one that was deep rooted in her motherland and one that had a toe in the West. She thus became, “the actress who could cook.”

Although initially, she discovered cooking first for survival, she soon started enjoying it. When the BBC hired her to host cooking shows, little did she know that she would have the world by surprise. In many of her cooking recipes, Jaffery is seen to be replacing many common indigenous Indian ingredients with their equivalents available more easily in the West. Accessibility thus came handy with Madhur Jaffery’s recipes. For example, for her recipe Chicken with Spinach or Chicken Palang, Jaffery is found to use either olive oil or sunflower oil. This recipe was also a newer interpretation of the traditional Saag Gosht (meat cooked with different green leafy vegetables including spinach, coriander and others) cooked widely in India. In India usually food and especially rich gravies would be cooked with ghee or the pungent mustard oil. However this minute intervention by Madhur Jaffery makes it easier for any person across the globe to use the recipe. The barriers to cooking are thus reduced.

Another recipe for instance is Fried Aubergine Slices. This is a modified and maybe a Westernised version of the modest Bengali Begun Bhaja (slices of aubergine deep fried with salt and turmeric, enjoyed both with rice as well as with fried breads). The version that Jaffery has concocted is served with roasted lamb and has ingredients like Cayenne Pepper easily available in the West. Yet another dish that Jaffery invented was an adaptation of another recipe she had had. The recipe was of Spinach and Okra Soup. In totality the recipe incorporates the palettes of the East and the West. Madhur Jaffery would also be found making Koftas (dumplings of meat cooked in rich gravies) In this particular case she would be found substituting coriander with parsley, fresh tomatoes with the canned ones. The use of these readily available ingredients removed the myth that Indian food was difficult to make. It further removed biases against cooking Indian food in general.

Besides recipes, Jaffery also taught the world the spice blends as well as items that complete Indian food. These included Garam Masala (all ground mix – an aromatic spice blend comprising cinnamon, cardamon, cloves other spices), ways of cooking papadam (an Indian appetiser made with lentils, chickpeas and other items), as well popular Indian breads such as pooris, parathas and chapatis or rotis. There were also recipes on fruit chutneys among other things. In 1996, Madhur Jaffery even began hosting a television series called Flavours of India, where she documented the food from different states of India. This was yet another attempt to represent India yet again.

Madhur Jaffery’s example thus is a very different hitherto unseen. She cooked, she acted, she wrote and she performed. She took up everything that came her way and honed up her skills. Yet these opportunities paved the way for her commendable feats. Madhur Jaffery was creating a home in the world but her India did not represent the same old hackneyed traditions. This was a new India, a free Indian with many goals to fulfil. She set a precedent for the future generation to follow. Many have been living up to her experiments i.e. of keeping the Indian image alive. The presence of actors like Priyanka Chopra and Dev Patel and chefs like Vikas Khanna and others ensure the same. Yet the fact that Madhur Jaffery is an exception prevails. It is in exclusivity that she glows and revels.

References:

1]Jaffrey, Madhur. Climbing the mango trees: a memoir of a childhood in India. Vintage, 2008.

2]
Nyman, Jopi. “Cultural contact and the contemporary culinary memoir: Home, memory and identity in Madhur Jaffrey and Diana Abu-Jaber.” a/b: Auto/Biography Studies 24.2 (2009): 282-298.

3]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGbg_mTodqA

4]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhur_Jaffrey

5]https://www.globalindian.com/story/global-indian-exclusive/padma-bhushan-madhur-jaffrey-made-indian-cuisine-global/

6]https://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/chefs/madhur-jaffrey/

7]https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/chefs/madhur_jaffrey

8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz8VqCvutIw&list=PL7qHxImKz_6BqlTXrIm5hPKjIWT6CVsZQ

9]https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6VvkxXz9oNOsrJxGYe0L4-AYPcduPcCx

10]https://www.sbs.com.au/food/program/madhur-jaffreys-curry-nation