Padma Lakshmi, Mindy Kaling among others slam viral post saying Indian cuisine consists of one spice
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gene Weingarten recently made some remarks on Indian food in a post published by an international daily which has created a stir on social media and hasn't gone down well with the netizens. Asian celebrities including Meena Harris, Mindy Kaling and Padma Lakshmi have also lashed out at the post. 'Top Chef' mentor Padma Lakshmi took to her Twitter account and shared her displeasure. She wrote, "There is truly no need for something like this to be published in 2021 (or ever). It’s racist and lazy at best. My issue is not this person’s performative contrarianism (although it is tedious) or that he didn’t enjoy the Indian cuisines he’s tasted."
She added, "My problem is in this attempt at a comedic piece he’s actually just regurgitating old colonizer tropes, gleefully reducing the culture and country of 1.3 billion people to a (frankly) weak punchline- and that the @washingtonpost published it.
Meena Harris, niece of VP Kamala Harris took to Twitter and said, "Apropos of absolutely nothing name your ONE favorite Indian spice. I’ll go first: asafoetida."
In the post, author talked about some of the food that does not like which included bay seasoning, vinegar, hazelnut and Indian food among others.
Hollywood producer of Indian origin, Mindy Kaling tweeted, “You don’t like a cuisine? Fine. But it’s so weird to feel defiantly proud of not liking a cuisine. You can quietly not like something too.”
In his post titled 'You can't make me eat these foods,' Gene said that the Indian subcontinent "is the only ethnic cuisine in the world insanely based entirely on one spice." He also indicated that Indian food could taste "like something that could knock a vulture off a meat wagon."
Check out netizens reactions here:
