Join Professor Siobhan Lambert-Hurley, historian and author, for a captivating conversation, as she discusses her acclaimed book, “Forgotten Foods: Memories and Recipes from Muslim South Asia” with Shamim Choudhury, award- winning Media correspondent and writer.

Heritage food is a booming industry in India and Pakistan today. Five-star hotels and fashionable restaurants tout traditional menus, while food festivals bring historic flavours to a general public hungry for dishes with provenance.

Vloggers and bloggers from Instagram to TikTok have jumped on the bandwagon, enriching their #foodporn with a spoonful of Wikihistory.
Yet, from the perspective of professional historians, all this chatter about ‘lost recipes’ and ‘gastronomic traditions’ needs more bonafide research to give it historical meaning and texture.

This realisation led to the birth of a project called Forgotten Food to open communications between scholars and food practitioners, including writers, performers, farmers and chefs. Among the many collaborations to come out of this project is a delectable collection of food stories, histories and recipes called Forgotten Foods: Memories and Recipes from Muslim South Asia (2023). As well as celebrating an amazing diversity of cuisines, it also points to how Muslim kitchens have so profoundly shaped and enriched South Asian food today.

This event pairs food historian Professor Siobhan Lambert-Hurley with chef and writer Sadaf Hussain to discuss their contributions and collaborations to recover lost histories and fading culinary traditions

Hosted by: Shamim Choudhury, award- winning Media correspondent and writer