India can feel like a world apart
from the South, but it shares a number of qualities
with the region, like hot, humid weather; an appreci-
ation for music and the arts; and a sense of hospital-
ity that tends toward joyful abundance. This overlap
provided the inspiration for Brown in the South, a
collaborative dinner series put together by seven
Southern chefs of Indian and Sri Lankan descent
(pictured, opposite). The dinners celebrate ingre-
dients common to both Mississippi and Mumbai,
like okra, shrimp, chiles, rice, and tomatoes, with
menus featuring spice-laden stews, crunchy fritters,
simmered vegetables, fire-roasted meats, and fried
cakes doused in syrup.
Vishwesh Bhatt, chef of Snackbar in Oxford,
Mississippi, and Meherwan Irani, whose empire
includes Chai Pani in Asheville, North Carolina, and
Decatur, Georgia, and Botiwalla in Atlanta, conceived
the idea of Brown in the South at the 2017 Southern
Foodways Alliance Symposium while discussing how
the diversity of the South inspired their cooking. “We
wondered how a bunch of Indian chefs ended up in
the South, why it was easier for us to find our roots
here,” Irani says. “That led to a conversation about
identity and how it feels to be an Indian chef living
and cooking in the South.”
The first of the series took place at Irani’s Decatur
location of Chai Pani, where the chefs welcomed a
sold-out crowd with Indian snacks and cocktails.
Guests sat at long tables and dug into a reimagined
Southern meat-and-three dinner of meatloaf topped
with tart pickled apple achar, peppery Kerala-style
fried chicken, and masala-spiced shrimp with upma,
an Indian semolina dish that stood in for grits.
“I’ve lived here longer than I lived in India,” Irani
says. “At some point, I have to stop being an Indian
who lives in the South and be someone who is
from both places. So we decided to get our friends
together and talk about it and cook. And then, of
course, being chefs, invite 150 people for dinner.”
The next party, held at Maneet Chauhan’s
Chauhan Ale & Masala House in Nashville, was a
family-style supper that celebrated the late-summer
garden bounties of both Tennessee and India. Diners
feasted on roasted okra–and-corn salad slathered
with chile-mint chutney and buttery cornbread
with fragrant toasted coconut, mustard seeds,
and curry leaves. Between courses, the chefs held
impromptu Bollywood dance-offs in the kitchen; at
the after-party, they pulled guests onto the dance
floor, and the moves were as universal as the meal
that preceded it.
“We work hard, but there’s so much joy in it.
It’s like home,”says Samantha Fore, chef-owner at
Tuk Tuk, a pop-up in Lexington, Kentucky, who
brought revamped tomato pie to the party. “There’s
a Sri Lankan cheese toast spiced with chile pepper
and onion that I love. Tomato pie always has mayo
and cheese, so I brought them together and made a
take on cheese toast with tomatoes and spices. It’s
the perfect bite of Sri Lanka and the South.”
“I don’t think I anticipated the emotional part of it
for me,” says Cheetie Kumar, who traveled from her
Raleigh, North Carolina, restaurants to participate.
“It was worlds colliding in the best possible way. It’s
an intense relief that all of the languages of cooking
are spoken and understood. It’s like a chef family,
that camaraderie and community.”