Incredible Tiffin launch in Delhi

Our dal-roti, biryani and chicken tikka masala have wowed foodies from the world over. And now, a tourism promotion campaign is using the lababdar lure of desi food to get more tourists to India.
Besides tourism promotions, the initiative, called Incredible Tiffin, also researches and documents the vast array of Indian cuisines that were slowly dying out as they were passed on from one generation to another.
The Indian ministry of tourism and Cuisine India Society have partnered for this venture, which will see numerous events being held in different regions of the country to celebrate the local khaana. Amitabh Kant, Chef Manisha Bhasin, Dileep Padgaonkar, Gautam Anand, V Sunil, Pushpesh Pant, Anil Rajput and Narendra Bhui are the initiators of the campaign, which will use its website and the social media as a platform to promote Indian food.
The website tiff.in, says V Sunil, will “provide an interactive face for the world to know more about the Indian food culture.” He added, “All the information about Indian food, the culture around it and the recipes will be up here. This will further progress into 10-11 sections – for example, if you click on the South Indian tiffin, you will get more details about the food habits of that region and the grandmothers’ recipes that are cooked and relished over there.”
The first event of this project was held in Delhi recently, celebrating 100 years of the evolution of the capital’s cuisine, for which a number of food lovers in the city got together. This event saw an impressive spread of the Dehlvi cuisine, the research for which was done by Chef Manisha Bhasin. “The menu reflects five years of research,” she said.
The do was in sync with the exotic Indian cuisine, with all things floral used to decorate the venue. All the guests had gajras around their wrists as they entered; scented vapours billowed from the flower vases placed on each tray used to serve the finger foods; the dining section had special dishes from multiple states of India spread across the tables; and nobody missed the flower-shaped serviettes on every table, each of which was done up with candles and pretty flower arrangements.
The idea behind this get-together was to kick-start the effort to attract more tourists to India through the variety of Indian food delicacies, and “not just limit the highlights of the country to the Taj Mahal or the backwaters of Kerala,” said Sunil. The Incredible Tiffin campaign, explained Amitabh Kant, “will be taken abroad to different shows. We are even developing six maps that will put together the various Indian cuisines and the wines of India that go with them.”
While everyone discussed the delectable Indian dishes, Pant quipped, “Dilliwale chatore hote hain and we all know that food is seductive in many ways, it offers ecstasy.” Congratulating those behind the initiative, tourism minister Subodh Kant Sahai, who formally inaugurated the project by opening a tiffin and biting into the food it contained, said, “We use very different kinds of ingredients in our food as compared to other countries, and that’s what makes it unique. This tiffin will surely bring more tourists to India.”
The research for this initiative has also been done by the students of the IHM institutes across India.