When guests came to dine at Chef Garima Arora's Gaa in Bangkok, which won a Michelin Star last year, they expected curry and naan. "My version of Indian food is what I ate growing up, but unfortunately that is not what we have exported to the world," Arora, dressed in a tee and khaki-coloured pants, tells us, while on a quick visit to the city. The growing need to redefine Indian cuisine and create a new narrative around it spurred Arora to plan a brainstorming session for the first chapter of Food Forward India, a not-for-profit, culinary-focused initiative that was held at Soho House on Thursday.

This brought stakeholders from the culinary world together to ideate and debate the future of Indian cuisine. "So much is being experimented with, reintroduced and created that it has cleared some misconceptions. But this has also raised questions. What is Indian cuisine and is there a means to document it? Is there a possibility of working out a structured approach to recipes?" enquires Arora, adding that while growing up, eating out was a luxury that made us crave for fatty, spicy and heavy food since we didn't eat that at home. "Today, we prefer lighter food even when we step out. Whether we call it modern Indian or progressive, food, in my opinion, should be utility driven," Arora tells us prior to the session.