A James Beard Award–winning food writer and restaurant critic, Joshua David Stein has written books with some of America’s most celebrated chefs, including Kwame Onwuachi and Tom Colicchio. Earlier this year, he joined two of New York’s most influential Indian restaurateurs on a culinary expedition through their home country. Over three and a half weeks, they ate their way from roadside stalls to royal kitchens, sampling everything from steaming cups of chai to fragrant biryani.
My trip to India was too long and goal-oriented to be a vacation, yet too short and nomadic to be a residency. Over three and a half weeks, I would travel to 12 cities, from Srinagar in Kashmir to Kochi in Kerala, alongside chefs Chintan Pandya and Roni Mazumdar, the men behind New York restaurants including Dhamaka, Semma, and Adda. Having written their first cookbook, I had the good fortune of joining them as they explored India’s cuisine, from fine-dining kitchens to market stalls to family homes.