Last week, I emerged from the lobby of a five-star hotel clutching on to my precious reporter?s notebook and a jhola full of er, potatoes! The spuds were the result of my interaction with KS Narayanan, MD, McCain Foods India. Those of you with kids at home (and others too, if they be lovers of frozen potato-ey snacks) may well be acquainted with the company. The all-time favourite of all kiddie meets, potato smiles, as well as all manner of frozen wedges, fries and, lately aloo tikkis are from the company. But it is their fries really that is the core business of this Canadian MNC?with one in three fries, as Narayanan tells me, anywhere in the world, coming from the company?s packets (McCain also supplies to McDonald?s).
The purpose of the interaction was to not just talk about the company and the growing processed food industry in India, but also to allay fears of additives and preservatives being added to frozen foods (McCain says it doesn?t even add salt to its fries), but as Naryanan made his presentation, the discussion moved, inevitably, to potatoes, India?s national ?vegetable??even if it isn?t quite an Indian veggie.
The globalisation of diet?and taste?is an interesting concept to study and it can be linked to economic, social and political transformations around the world. As a concept, it is not tough to understand. A working mom to a five-year-old, I encounter it every single day, when my daughter wants fries to be ?just like? McD?s, or unbranded, locally-made crisps (dare I buy these) to be just like Lays (plain or American cheese onion, only please). Trying to wean her away from these empty calories to nutritious and fresh made-at-home meals is a process riddled with compromise.
Post-Lib generations of Indians, after all, demand?and get? certain constants in their food that will remain unchanged wherever they are around the globe. Never mind local gourmet pleasures, big companies like McDonald?s and Pepsi have altered the way we live and eat indelibly. As have potatoes that have steadily grown to become the global staple over four centuries of gourmet globalisation.
But first to the spuds that Narayanan gave me, exhorting to use these at home to make ?perhaps not fries, but wedges, brush them with olive oil and bake in an oven?. The test was to see how different these turn out to be from those made using local varieties brought from the mandi. I did as I had been suggested and I am happy to report that there indeed was a substantial difference in quality and texture.
One reason why we can never replicate the McDonald?s fries using Indian potato varieties is because the latter have more water and less solid mass. To make those perfectly golden, crisp fries, the solid content in a potato should be about 22-25%. Indian varieties have about 12-15% only. So, when McCain came to India and set up a high-tech plant in Gujarat, it was also forced to introduce foreign varieties, which can be used to make all its products. The potatoes that I took home were from these contracted fields in Gujarat, and needless to say, instead of the oily, limp chips that we usually make at home, these turned out to be fairly better?if not exactly commercial quality.
As the restaurant and processed food industries grow in India, will our fields be flooded (though that is a wrong metaphor to use; potatoes require less water) with international varietals? Will the potato biodiversity further decline? A change in the agronomy of different veggies, grains and fruits is only to be expected as we get exposed to more global flavours. And while we may rue the loss of many local, but less-in-demand varieties, there seems to an inevitability to this kind of globalisation despite the proponents of the Slow Food Movement who have made traditional products and techniques rightly fashionable. After all, if you look at the journey of the humble aloo, from the Andes to the poor man?s biryani in Kolkata, you will realise that globalisation of taste was happening?thanks to trade and politics?even before we thought of the term.
According to the Cambridge World History of Food, potato first made its way to Europe around the time of the Renaissance, when it was likened to truffles (!) and thought to be food for royalty. Marie Antoniette, for instance, wore a hat decorated with potato flowers at a social event, when the staples in France were still bread and soup. The shift from grain to starchy potatoes on a mass level was to take place in the subsequent centuries, as a result of wars, when the hardy potatoes that could be stored for longer periods became staples?the quintessential anti-famine diet. We all know of the Irish potato famine when crops were ruined by blight, but that didn?t stop the rise of the potato into becoming the fourth most important food globally.
In China (the biggest producer) and India, the tuber was introduced by colonial forces around the 17th and 18th centuries. Even though, as late as the 19th century, these were regarded in the colonies as a superior English garden vegetable. So, how did this elusive plant find its way into all our chaats, subzis, and samosas? It would be interesting to trace this evolution in India where today some of our commonest national dishes?whether they be tikkis or masala dosas or poori bhaji?are all potato-laden.
On the other hand, in the days of fad diets that have rendered the aloo unfashionable, it may be also worth our while to check out the nutritional content of the spud?rich in potassium and vitamin B6?before we wallow in guilt over the next batch of fries!
?The writer is a food critic