18th ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Divas’ convention 2025 concludes

Bhubaneswar: The Indian cuisine has earned its respect on the global stage over the past few years not because of its flavors but for the Indian pride, celebrity chef Ranveer Brar said on the concluding day of the 18th ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Divas’ convention here.

“Earlier when I used to set up restaurants abroad, I used hyphenated words such as Modern Indian Restaurant. But now simply the name Indian restaurant is enough to entice customers. It has been possible because people have started seeing food and culture together in the last 25 years, especially in the last 10 years,” Brar said, participating in a session titled Diaspora Dialogues: Stories of Culture, Connection, and Belongingness, on the concluding day of the ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Divas’ 2025.

The feeling of cultural or identity pride motivates the diaspora to speak confidently about their cuisine among friends in their host countries. One should be unapologetic about their own culture to effectively spread and promote their home cuisine, he commented.

“If one is unapologetically Indian, they will bring friends to the table of Indian cuisine. Pride in Indian culture is actual soft power,” Chef Ranveer Brar stated while answering a query on how to bring foreigners closer to Indian food during the plenary session on the final day of the ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Divas’ convention.

Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Minister of Culture & Tourism, who chaired the session, described the Indian diaspora as the

torchbearers of India’s rich legacy abroad, particularly in popularising Indian foods and festivals.