What India serves its guests at official tables has long been more than a matter of protocol. The menus at prime ministerial banquets have evolved with the tastes, habits and preferences of the country's leaders, from Jawaharlal Nehru's efforts to "Indianise" state dinners to Narendra Modi's emphasis on vegetarian food.
A new book, The Prime Minister's Table: Delicacies & Diplomacies from the Era of Nehru to Modi, by journalists Purabi Shridhar and Sanghita Singh, traces this culinary history through 14 chapters. Published by Amaryllis, an imprint of Manjul Publishing House, the 322-page book draws on more than seven years of interviews with prime ministers' families, friends, staff, chefs and others associated with their kitchens and dining rooms.
The book does not address the recent controversy over the BRICS dinner and does not take a position on it. It does, however, record Modi's own description of his diet. "I prefer very simple meals," he said during an online question-and-answer session in 2016, according to the book.
How Nehru changed the state banquet
Nehru altered the format of official entertaining after Independence. Garlands replaced bouquets, Indian dishes began appearing on state menus and orange juice was used for toasts, according to an account by artist Anjolie Ela Menon cited in the book.
Her aunt, Tara Ali Baig, the wife of Nehru's chief of protocol, helped Indira Gandhi develop the new style of official entertaining. Nehru himself preferred uncomplicated food. An office note from 1956 recorded that he was "not used to spice and chillies at all".
One example of the effort to bring Indian food into official dining came during the 1962 war, when Uttar Pradesh chief minister Chandra Bhanu Gupta requested an entirely vegetarian menu for a reception in Lucknow. Chef Imtiaz Qureshi created dishes that resembled non-vegetarian preparations, including lauki "fish", jackfruit "murgh musallam" and brinjal shaped like chicken legs.
Nehru joked about the names before telling Qureshi: "Imtiaz, you truly broke the record."
Indira Gandhi's detailed approach to entertaining
Indira Gandhi took a hands-on approach to official dinners, according to chef Sudhir Sibal, who worked at Hyderabad House. She personally finalised menus and guest lists.
Sibal recalls that when a turkey roast appeared on the proposed menu for the 1983 Commonwealth summit, Gandhi asked: "Why can't you give them biryani?" The kitchen changed the menu accordingly.
She also ensured that one chair at each table was left vacant so that she could move around and interact with guests. Small scissors were kept available so diners could cut grapes, while young MPs were sent to Hyderabad House for dining etiquette classes.
"I consider her the best," Sibal says in the book. Former Union minister Margaret Alva similarly recalls: "Yes, she was a great host."
Beyond formal banquets, the book records Gandhi's fondness for regional food. She was particularly associated with Kashmiri cuisine and often had dishes such as goshtaba and yakhni served when she hosted guests. She also enjoyed local food while travelling. A separate book excerpt recalls her eating a meal from a banana leaf in Hyderabad and enjoying the dishes served there.
One anecdote describes Gandhi teaching a diplomat how to eat caviar during a 1967 Moscow visit. She mixed it with minced onion, boiled egg and lemon before tasting it herself.
Rajiv Gandhi brought nouvelle cuisine to official dinners
The style changed again during Rajiv Gandhi's tenure, when official banquets began incorporating plated nouvelle cuisine.
Chefs Sibal and M S Gupta underwent three months of training in Britain. Their menus included baby naans with chicken liver pâté, tomato and coconut soup and carrot and orange soup.
Sibal, however, says Rajiv Gandhi should not receive all the credit. He recalls that Sonia Gandhi supervised details ranging from crockery to flowers.
Simple diets shaped several prime ministers' tables
Personal dietary habits often influenced official dining, although some leaders kept their private preferences separate from what was served to guests.
Lal Bahadur Shastri, then a Union minister and a strict vegetarian, once told guests at a dinner hosted by the Kerala chief minister or governor that his young son "will enjoy his meal if he eats with his hand", according to his son Anil Shastri.
Morarji Desai's abstinence from alcohol also affected diplomatic dinners. At a 1977 dinner hosted by Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, the Russians knew Desai did not drink, and no alcohol was served, former foreign secretary K Raghunath recalls. Toasts were instead raised with mineral water.
The shorter premierships of Charan Singh, V P Singh and Chandrashekhar left fewer traces in the book. Charan Singh, who served for 171 days, was particularly associated with bottle gourd. V P Singh's wife, Sita Kumari, says she never attended any of his official dinners. Chandrashekhar, who was prime minister for a little over seven months, had banquets for the Special Protection Group where alcohol was not served.
P V Narasimha Rao's official meals reflected his doctor's advice. Dal and phulka were served even at state banquets, with a cook assigned to prepare fresh phulkas at Hyderabad House, according to Gupta.
H D Deve Gowda, another teetotaller, raised toasts abroad without drinking. At a lunch for IMF chief Michael Camdessus, he reportedly swallowed a ragi ball with water, something his protégé Kunwar Danish Ali describes as being "against dining etiquette".
Vajpayee brought street food to the prime ministerial table
Atal Bihari Vajpayee's approach to entertaining was less formal in some settings. Vendors selling chaat and jalebi from Chandni Chowk were brought to his private parties, according to Rajiv Makin, a former general manager of the Ashok Hotel.
Golgappas were served with the water in a separate pot. Vajpayee reportedly looked at them and asked: "How do I have them?"
Food also featured in the diplomacy surrounding his meetings with foreign leaders. At the banquet held during Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's visit for the Agra summit, Begum Musharraf asked for the recipe for the mulligatawny soup.
The book also records Vajpayee's fondness for food beyond Delhi's street fare, including golden fried prawns at the Taj Mahal Hotel and chaat in Lucknow.
Gujral and Manmohan Singh had different approaches
I K Gujral's household maintained two approaches to food. His wife, Sheila Gujral, preferred dishes with less ghee and oil, while official banquets featured richer food for guests. The Ashok Hotel prepared separate versions to accommodate the difference.
During the UPA years, Manmohan Singh's wife, Gursharan Kaur, played a role in curating menus at Hyderabad House. She even called chefs to her home to demonstrate how ghiya koftas should be prepared and softened.
"How could I expect my guests to be happy?" she says in the book, referring to food that she herself did not like.
Singh made 73 foreign visits during his 10 years as prime minister, averaging around seven visits a year. Among the meals served during those diplomatic engagements was a green prawn curry at a 2009 White House state dinner.
Modi's vegetarian menus and the role of chefs
Official menus under Narendra Modi have reflected his vegetarian diet. During his 2017 visit to Israel, he was served an Indian vegetarian dinner. Chef Sanjeev Kapoor prepared the menus for Modi's 2015 banquets in the UAE.
"To know a country's culture, you've to eat its food," Modi told Kapoor, according to the book.
Other accounts from the book and its coverage offer glimpses of Modi's personal relationship with food. One reported anecdote describes him guiding the wife of a BJP worker on preparing sabudana khichdi.
A book review also notes that the chapters contain family recipes associated with several prime ministers, including V P Singh's hare chane ka halwa, Indira Gandhi's tawas, Manmohan Singh's almond vegetable and a Gujarati lasagne associated with Modi.
Protocol sets the boundaries
Despite the personal imprint prime ministers have left on official dining, there are limits to how far they can shape a state banquet.
"State banquets are all regimental and protocol bound," Sibal says. Within those constraints, however, prime ministers have influenced menus, presentation and the overall experience of hosting foreign dignitaries.
Indira Gandhi's message to younger chefs, according to Sibal, was essentially that they should experiment and broaden their approach.
The authors describe the book as an attempt to move beyond the political biographies of India's prime ministers and examine their homes, family life, friendships and dining habits. The result is a culinary account spanning seven decades of India's political history, from Nehru's attempts to replace colonial-era banquet traditions with an Indian identity to the more contemporary menus associated with Modi.