Join us for an intellectual weekend.

Date - 22 March, 2026

Time - 1- 4 PM

Location - The Big Small Cafe + Bar, Dadar West

The price of the ticket includes food & drinks.

About the lecture

 A historical and interdisciplinary talk on how oven-based foods, once shunned in India, reshaped taste, identity, colonial power structures, and urbanisation. Starting by diving deep into Mughal court records and traveller accounts, we will go over the colonial entry of the oven by exploring growth of bakeries in port cities (including their cultural nuances, ingredients and culinary innovation), and finally talking about the birth of the packaged taste (this will cover biscuit pioneers, role of tea, advertising narratives and taste as class and cultural aspiration).

About the speaker

Tanushree Kulkarni is an independent Food Historian and researcher trained in Creative and Cultural Industries, Art History, and Pastry Arts. Her work explores the history of sweets and bakeries in India, examining the cultural exchanges, colonial encounters, and layered social histories embedded within confectionery traditions. Through her research, she uncovers how food — particularly sugar, desserts, and baked goods — has shaped identities, taste, memory, and modern Indian culinary culture.