Cross the border with us into Scotland as we embark on the first leg of The Migration Menu’s road trip, and listen in to our interview with celebrity chef, author, and TV cook Tony Singh, in front of a live audience at Kalpna Restaurant in Edinburgh. The event was part of the public anthropology festival PeopleFest, and included a Q&A from the audience who packed the restaurant.

** 00:40-00:58: A reminder to sign-up to our newsletter Listen To The Migration Menu Podcast – The Migration Menu, and get some great discount offers from eateries featured on the show!

**Starters** (01:09 –05.23)

James and Luke discuss The Migration Menu’s pioneering role in taking anthropology to public audiences, capturing stories about migration from South Asia through food in ways that challenge public discourse, and promote the value of anthropology. They set the scene for their live interview with Sikh chef Tony Singh – the son of migrants from India and a regular on British TV screens – who, with Cyrus Todiwala, was one half of the Incredible Spice Men on BBC2. He currently runs a super club in Edinburgh.

**05.24-05.40: A shout-out from Mike Crawley, co-host of The Anthropology Podcast, to have a listen to one of our sibling shows!

**Mains** (05:57-22:24)

As a packed restaurant tucks into Kalpna’s brunch buffer, Tony shares his family’s journey from Punjab to Leith, in Edinburgh. There, his Scottish-born Punjabi mother pared the best of Scottish and Punjabi cuisines, and provided the inspiration for Tony’s famous haggis pakora. He talks about racism, getting quality South Asian food on to British menus, and the influence of Empire on what we eat today. The discussion also extends to cultural appropriation, fusion, authenticity, and why narrative is important to the taste of a good dish. And James and Luke end the interview with their time honored question: what does Tony have for breakfast?

**Dessert** (22:36-41.24)

Q&A, followed by James and Luke’s reflections on the discussion.

23.12-33.12: The audience get their chance to ask Tony questions, and learn about square sausage, K-pop, his favorite foods, and what ingredient he couldn’t live without.

33.21-41.24: Apart from a massive bag of pakoras, James & Luke had plenty of other takeaways from the interview, including Tony’s insights on food, empire, the politics of food, and the challenge of defining the boundaries of South Asian cuisine. They also take about the role of celebrity in making a cuisine, and the social aspirations that cookery shows draw upon and shape.

References

Lengyel, Ariane and Gatley, Andy (2016) Celebrity chefs and the construction of taste: from über macho to culinary crusader. In: CHME Annual Research Conference 2016, 4-6 May 2016, Belfast. (Unpublished)

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Join us as we head south of the river to Sohini Banerjee’s Smoke and Lime supper club in Kennington, eat some great food, meet a bunch of interesting people, and ponder questions about authenticity, fusion, identity and gender.

** 00:50-01:08: A reminder to sign-up to our newsletter Listen To The Migration Menu Podcast – The Migration Menu, and get some great discount offers from eateries featured on the show!

**Starters** (01:09 – 08:03)

How do supper clubs work? How are they different to restaurants, and why – in particular – are they growing in popularity among diners from South Asian diasporas? These are some of the questions on James and Luke’s minds enroute to Smoke and Lime supper club, keen to expand their understanding of the South Asian food scene beyond the restaurant space. In addition to supper clubs, they encounter a rich array of services, from Vegetarian Brown Girls’ deliveries of chilled chai to Ajji’s Ghee.

**08.04-08.23: A shout-out from Mike Crawley, co-host of The Anthropology Podcast, to have a listen to one of our sibling shows!

**Mains** (08:24-20:23)

James and Luke join eight other guests for dinner in Sohini’s apartment, capturing some of the Bengali adda – hanging out for informal conversation – as well as the culinary experience. Rijil, Sohini’s husband and co-host of the supper club, takes us, course-by-course, through the menu, rooted in the foodscape of West Bengal, with influences from China, Malaysia, and the couple’s recent trip to Vietnam. One of their favourite London restaurants, SMOKING GOAT | Shoreditch | Thai Bar & Grill, has also made a mark on the menu.

**Dessert** (20:28-27:33)

James and Luke reflect on their supper club experience, consider the ways in which they blur the boundaries between domestic hospitality and business, friendship and networking, and public and private in interesting – and often delightful – ways. A focus on supper clubs also allows them to dig down into the gendered dimensions of the food industry, with women’s labor, in particular, often invisibilised

**On the Menu**

Phuchka (A South Kolkata street food special – served at the kitchen counter)

Chicken liver larb, with herbs and peach

Pumpkin bhorta, pickled mooli

Winter vegetables chochori

Wild seabass with turmeric and galangal

Schezwan prawns and sambal butter

Cardamom pannacotta with cocoa and saffron

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Welcome back to The Migration Menu!! In this week’s episode, James and Luke reflect on the past two seasons of dining out and discussing migration journeys and culinary transformations, and preview what’s on the menu for Season Three…Dig in!

See more here:

Web: www.themigrationmenu.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMigrationMenu

**Starters** (00:18 – 01:40)

Welcome to the new series, which takes us beyond our usual stomping ground of London to take in road trips to Newcastle and Edinburgh, and explores the phenomenon of the South Asian diaspora celebrity chef…

**Mains** (01:40-26:42)

James and Luke offer a behind-the-scenes glimpse of The Migration Menu’s origin story and at what they’ve learnt along the way. They also look back at the restaurants, restaurateurs, and others who have joined them on the journey, with shout-outs to…

Series One

01:49: Indra Hang Linden at Namaste Gurkha

08:12: Al Hyderabadi

08:44: Madhus

10:56: Sri Krishna Vada Pau

11:09: London Food Company

12:10: YAKO

12:31: Saravanaa Bhavan

*16:56: Shout out for our fellow anthropology podcast, The Anthropology Podcast!*

Series Two

18:03: London Buddhist Vihara

18:37: Guru Nanak Sikh Academy (GNSA) annual Langar

20:14: Graam Bangla

20:29: Maldivian Supper Club

21:10: The Kokum

22:53: Takharistan (Shepherd’s Bush) and Shiraz (Uxbridge Road)

23:42: GIFTOs

23:45: Behesht

24:25: Sohini Banerjee & Debbie Weekes-Bernard at Pitzhanger Gallery

24:46: The Vegetarian Brown Girls

25:21: Sathnam Sanghera at GNSA

25:35: The Gaze – the hidden lives of food entrepreneurs

**Dessert** (26:42-29:46)

James and Luke wrap up this week’s show with a round-up of what’s in store this series, where their interviews with celebrity South Asian diaspora chefs reveal some of the creative ways in which restaurateurs survive in a tough environment. Shout-outs to…

27:22: Tony Singh at Kalpna, live from Edinburgh

27.46: Asma Khan of Darjeeling Express, London

27.56: Asma Khan at the SOAS Food Studies’ Centre Annual Distinguished Lecture

28:04: Ravinder Bhogal of Jikoni, London

28:38: Aida Khan of Shola Karachi Kitchen

28:53: Special live recording from ClassicsFest, Newcastle, with food at The Lubber Kitchen and The Seven Bridges Café

29:30: Cyrus Todiwala of Café Spice Namaste

Works Cited:

Baumann, G. (1996) Contesting culture: Discourses of identity in multi-ethnic London. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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