Best quotes, links to deeper reading from Smita Chutke on Four Bites Show
What Gwyneth Paltrow gets wrong about turmeric, cow-dung-fueled cooking, and expert spice wisdom from Smita's Cookery star
Smita Chutke brought her quiet charm and spice evangelist passion to the Four Bites Show on Dec. 18. Watch the show here on the Four Bites YouTube channel.
As we discussed cultural appropriation, Chutke mentioned Gwyneth Paltrow’s turmeric latte, which gained faddish popularity in 2016 after Paltrow presented it as a health tonic on Goop, her lifestyle website.
Chutke explained that Paltrow and many like her told their audience they were benefiting from the ancient healing powers of turmeric, but got the details wrong. Powdered turmeric used in most modern preparations doesn’t have the ayurvedic effects honored for millennia.
The correct preparation is fresh turmeric root grated into milk and simmered, Chutke said.
“It’s cultural appropriation when nobody knows the science behind it. What they're doing is saying, ‘In ancient Indian culture, this is good for you,’ and then they're giving you the wrong thing. Is that fair? And it makes people annoyed when you’re like, ‘Oh, no, it's not the thing.”
“So what people don't understand is that spices are actually like drugs,” Chutke said, “and what I mean by that is they have medicinal benefits. If you take in high quantities, it can alter your body in different ways. … All the spices have their medicinal uses and benefits, and time to eat, and in the right proportion you're supposed to eat.
So turmeric has its own benefit, but it has to be in the right way, with a certain composition.”
Chutke said she doesn’t eat much Indian food at restaurants, having visited three or four in the area. Of those, she enjoyed Taj Grill, 2290 Delaware Ave., the most.
Favorite restaurant with 60 minutes drive of Buffalo City Hall: DiTondo, 370 Seneca St.
Asked about blending Indian cuisine with Texas barbecue, Chutke said she’d been to Southern Junction, Ryan Fernandez’s groundbreaking restaurant at 365 Connecticut St. (Subject of this week’s review.)
“Barbecue is a huge thing in India as well in North Indian cuisine,” Chutke said, referring to chicken tikka.
“Tikka” means to grill. Before gas pipelines, everybody cooked that way. Even my grandmothers were cooking in the earth, in pots. Meaning they would dig a hole in their backyard, and they would cook in the backyard, in the mud.
Q: What would they use as fuel?
They would use coal and everything, but the main fuel was cow dung. … they would collect every morning the dried cow dung cakes. It’s not only great for the fuel, but also it purifies the entrances of your home and everything
That's one of the reason why Indian people think of cows as a whole, and worship them, because every part is useful.
Q: Barbecue here is long, slow cooking of the gnarlier, cheaper pieces for a long time with smoke, until they melt.
Chutke: I should have mentioned that, too. So those are the urban parts that I was mentioning. I've seen the barbecue like you put the meat, everything inside the ground, and then you cook it very slowly for many hours. Right? So in many parts of India we do that, too, as well.
And that's what Southern Junction is. He's also Indian and he has combined that Texan technique, with the Indian flavors and spices. So in India. Not people. Now, we don't do it as often, but in ancient times, or in farms and places, the countryside, people still cook that big.
Editor’s note: Please note that Four Bites Show is canceled for Jan. 1. Bring your cookbook questions to Jan. 8’s show, where a three-expert panel will help people decide how to take care of their beloved cookbook collections.
If you can’t make the live show, send questions to me at andrew@fourbites.net and I’ll put them to the panelists in your stead. As usual, that Four Bites Show will be published to YouTube so everyone can watch it later.
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