Between Curry and Cutlets: Culinary Imitation and Colonial Modernity in Nineteenth-Century Calcutta

Rishiraj Bhowmick

doi:10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i02.73494

Between Curry and Cutlets: Culinary Imitation and Colonial Modernity in Nineteenth-Century Calcutta

Author(s)	Rishiraj Bhowmick
Country	India
Abstract	The history of food in colonial Calcutta reveals how everyday culinary practices became entangled with questions of power, imitation, and cultural identity under colonial rule. In the eighteenth century, British settlers in India frequently adapted to local foodways, incorporating dishes such as curry and rice into their daily diets out of convenience and necessity. As colonial authority consolidated in the nineteenth century, however, the Anglo-Indian table became increasingly anglicised, and dining practices were reconfigured to assert racial and cultural distinction from the “native” population. Within this shifting culinary landscape, the Bengali bhadralok encountered Western food habits in complex and selective ways. While beef consumption remained a fiercely contested boundary, middle-class Bengalis gradually adopted European-influenced dishes, while carefully adapting them to existing caste and cultural sensibilities. Restaurants in Calcutta further enabled experimentation with new culinary practices beyond the constraints of the household. Rather than simple imitation, these developments reflected a process of negotiation in which Western forms were absorbed, modified, and domesticated, allowing Bengali cuisine to appear modern and cosmopolitan while retaining a recognisably local identity.
Keywords	Colonial Calcutta, Food culture, Cultural imitation, Bhadralok, Colonial modernity, Culinary Culture.
Field	Sociology > Archaeology / History
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 2, March-April 2026
Published On	2026-04-03
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i02.73494

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Between Curry and Cutlets: Culinary Imitation and Colonial Modernity in Nineteenth-Century Calcutta

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