New book traces prime ministers' banquet menus from Nehru to Modi

A new book on prime ministers' tables has drawn attention after the all-vegetarian fare at this month's Brics Summit triggered controversy. 'The Prime Minister's Table: Delicacies and Diplomacies from the Era of Nehru to Modi', by journalists Purabi Shridhar and Sanghita Singh, draws on over seven years of interviews across 14 chapters. Chef Sudhir Sibal recalls Indira Gandhi asking "Why cannot you give them biryani?" on seeing turkey roast on the 1983 CHOGM draft menu.

Written by AI from BRICS / G20 / SCO / Quad · not yet reviewed by an editor · Published 22 Sept 2026, 9:28 am IST

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Desk check · compared with the source

What the desk checked (5)

All-vegetarian fare at this month's Brics Summit triggered controversy. — Stated in source without attribution to a named source; framed as background context.
'The Prime Minister's Table: Delicacies and Diplomacies from the Era of Nehru to Modi' by Purabi Shridhar and Sanghita Singh draws on over seven years of interviews and has 14 chapters. — Attributed to the book and its authors in the source.
Indira Gandhi asked 'Why cannot you give them biryani?' about a turkey roast on the 1983 CHOGM draft menu. — Attributed in the book to chef Sudhir Sibal.
A 1956 office note said Nehru was 'not used to spice and chillies at all'. — Quoted from a document cited in the book; figure/date appears in source.
Manmohan Singh made 73 foreign visits in 10 years, including a 2009 White House state dinner serving green prawn curry. — Figures appear in the source as drawn from the book; not independently verifiable here.

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Analysts’ view opinion

AI Political Analyst

A banquet menu is never just a kitchen decision — it is a signal about how each prime minister wanted to project political identity. The story itself notes that interest in this book has spiked because of the controversy over the all-vegetarian fare at this month's Brics Summit, which tells us food remains a live battleground of political symbolism. Nehru's Indianisation of state banquets, Indira Gandhi asking for biryani instead of turkey roast, Vajpayee bringing Chandni Chowk chaat to the table — each is a generation's own act of political self-presentation.

Indira Gandhi's biryani request at the 1983 CHOGM and Nehru's switch to garlands and Indian dishes can be read as nationalist signalling, a move away from colonial-era form.
Morarji Desai's teetotalism, Charan Singh's bottle-gourd table and Deve Gowda's ragi ball show how personal habits doubled as markers of a leader's social and political base.
The book says Modi's official menus follow his vegetarian diet; the Brics row shows how such choices can get entangled with domestic food politics.
On the other side, chef Sibal's line that state banquets are "all regimental and protocol bound" is a caution against reading every menu item as an ideological statement.
The account also reveals prime ministers' wives — Sonia Gandhi, Sheila Gujral, Gursharan Kaur — as quiet but real centres of influence over how India hosted.

What to watch — Watch whether rival parties pick up the book's episodes to argue their own food-politics case, and whether the Brics menu debate has further legs.

The story does not establish who decided the Brics vegetarian menu, who raised the objection, or how the government responded.

Deep dive

Research brief · 8 facts · 10 dates · exam-ready

The brief

Context

India's state banquets have long doubled as instruments of diplomacy, and the all-vegetarian fare served at this month's Brics Summit revived debate over what the country serves visiting dignitaries. A new book, 'The Prime Minister's Table: Delicacies and Diplomacies from the Era of Nehru to Modi' by journalists Purabi Shridhar and Sanghita Singh, traces how official menus have mirrored each prime minister's personal tastes, diet and politics since Jawaharlal Nehru began Indianising state banquets in the late 1940s. Built on over seven years of interviews with families, friends, staff and chefs across 14 chapters, the book records anecdotes from CHOGM 1983 to the Agra summit and Manmohan Singh's White House dinner.

Key facts

The book 'The Prime Minister's Table: Delicacies and Diplomacies from the Era of Nehru to Modi' is by journalists Purabi Shridhar and Sanghita Singh, drawing on over seven years of interviews across 14 chapters.
Chef Sudhir Sibal recalls Indira Gandhi asking "Why cannot you give them biryani?" when turkey roast appeared on the draft menu for the 1983 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
A 1956 office note said Nehru was "not used to spice and chillies at all"; under him garlands replaced bouquets and toasts were raised in orange juice.
In 1962, for UP chief minister Chandra Bhanu Gupta's Lucknow reception, chef Imtiaz Qureshi built an all-vegetarian menu with bottle gourd 'fish', jackfruit 'murgh musallam' and brinjal as chicken legs.
Under Rajiv Gandhi, banquets shifted to plated nouvelle cuisine; chefs Sibal and MS Gupta trained in Britain for three months.
At a 1977 dinner hosted by Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, toasts were raised in mineral water for teetotaller Morarji Desai and no alcohol was served, recalls former foreign secretary K Raghunath.
Charan Singh, V P Singh and Chandrashekhar together held office for about two years; Chandrashekhar's banquets for the Special Protection Group served no alcohol.
Manmohan Singh made 73 foreign visits in 10 years, about seven a year, including a 2009 White House state dinner that served green prawn curry.

Timeline

Late 1940sNehru begins Indianising state banquets; garlands replace bouquets, Indian dishes enter menus, toasts raised in orange juice.
1956An office note records that Nehru was "not used to spice and chillies at all".
1962Chef Imtiaz Qureshi creates an all-vegetarian menu for UP CM Chandra Bhanu Gupta's Lucknow reception; Nehru praises him.
1977At Leonid Brezhnev's dinner, toasts are raised in mineral water for Morarji Desai; no alcohol served.
1983Indira Gandhi replaces turkey roast with biryani on the CHOGM draft menu.
2001 (Agra summit)At the banquet for Pervez Musharraf's visit, Mrs Musharraf asks for the mulligatawny soup recipe.
2009Manmohan Singh is hosted at a White House state dinner that serves green prawn curry.
2015Chef Sanjeev Kapoor cooks Narendra Modi's UAE banquets.
2017Israel serves Modi an Indian vegetarian dinner.
This monthAll-vegetarian fare at the Brics Summit triggers controversy, renewing interest in official menus.

Who has a stake

Prime Minister's Office and protocol establishment — Sets the limits of state hospitality; Sibal says state banquets are "all regimental and protocol bound".
Chefs (Sudhir Sibal, MS Gupta, Imtiaz Qureshi, Sanjeev Kapoor) — Translate leaders' diets and diplomatic messaging into menus, sometimes retraining abroad to do so.
Visiting foreign leaders and delegations — Their dietary and cultural expectations shape, and are shaped by, what India serves at official tables.
Prime ministers' families (Sonia Gandhi, Sheila Gujral, Gursharan Kaur, Sita Kumari) — Curated menus, crockery and hospitality; Gursharan Kaur called chefs home to demonstrate ghiya koftas.
The Ashok Hotel and Hyderabad House kitchens — Executed banquet menus, including dual menus under I K Gujral and fresh phulkas for P V Narasimha Rao.
Authors Purabi Shridhar and Sanghita Singh — Documented seven years of interviews into a 14-chapter account of culinary diplomacy.

Why it matters

Food at state banquets is a soft-power instrument: what India puts on the plate signals cultural identity, personal austerity or political messaging to visiting leaders. The Brics vegetarian-menu row shows that such choices remain contested, and the book's account of leaders from Nehru to Modi demonstrates that menu-setting has always mixed private taste with public diplomacy. It also records an under-documented institutional history of chefs, protocol officers and hosts who shape India's diplomatic image.

UPSC angle

Prelims pointers

CHOGM stands for Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting; India hosted the 1983 edition, where Indira Gandhi chose biryani over turkey roast.
Chef Imtiaz Qureshi crafted the 1962 all-vegetarian Lucknow menu using bottle gourd, jackfruit and brinjal as meat substitutes.
Morarji Desai's teetotalism led to mineral-water toasts at Leonid Brezhnev's 1977 dinner.
Hyderabad House and The Ashok Hotel feature as venues/executors of official Indian banquets.
Manmohan Singh made 73 foreign visits in 10 years, including the 2009 White House state dinner.
Chef Sanjeev Kapoor cooked Narendra Modi's 2015 UAE banquets; Israel served him a vegetarian dinner in 2017.

Mains framing

Gastrodiplomacy — the use of cuisine as a vehicle of statecraft — emerges from this account as a consistent, if informal, feature of Indian foreign policy. The causes are both personal and political: Nehru's Indianisation of banquets asserted post-colonial cultural confidence; Indira Gandhi's insistence on biryani at CHOGM 1983 projected indigenous identity at a Commonwealth gathering; Rajiv Gandhi's plated nouvelle cuisine, with chefs trained in Britain, signalled modernisation; Morarji Desai's mineral-water toasts and Deve Gowda's ragi ball showed how personal abstinence and regional identity travelled abroad; and Modi's vegetarian menus, as in the Brics row, show how diet can become a site of public contestation. The implications are that hospitality is never neutral — it communicates values, accommodates or overlooks guests' preferences, and can invite criticism when read as exclusionary. The way forward suggested by the source is that protocol, which Sibal calls "all regimental and protocol bound", must balance the host leader's tastes with guests' expectations; as Kapoor quotes Modi, "To know a country's culture, you've to eat its food" — an argument for menus that showcase India's regional diversity rather than a single template.

Key terms

State banquet: Formal official meal hosted for visiting dignitaries, governed by protocol on menu, seating and toasts.
CHOGM: Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting; the 1983 edition's draft menu was altered by Indira Gandhi to feature biryani.
Nouvelle cuisine: Style of plated dishes assembled in the kitchen, introduced at Indian state banquets under Rajiv Gandhi.
Special Protection Group (SPG): Security force for whom Chandrashekhar hosted banquets, at which no alcohol was served.
Mulligatawny soup: Soup served at the Agra summit banquet for Pervez Musharraf; Mrs Musharraf asked for its recipe.
Brics Summit: Multilateral grouping's summit held this month, where all-vegetarian fare triggered controversy.

Practice questions

Examine how culinary choices at state banquets function as instruments of soft power and cultural diplomacy, using examples from India's prime ministers since 1947.
"Protocol sets the limits." Discuss the tension between a head of government's personal dietary preferences and the expectations of foreign guests at official Indian tables.
How do informal histories such as accounts by chefs, family members and protocol officers enrich our understanding of India's diplomatic record?

Grounded only in the source report — figures and dates are the source's, not inferred.

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