Food journalist from Times of India & Economic Times

Matters came to a head in the 1920s over a grant by the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee to a school where two Brahmin students were given separate eating facilities. After much campaigning, when the Committee withdrew the grant, several Brahmins resigned, causing the first caste-based split. Curiously Mahatma Gandhi, who was otherwise firm on overcoming caste discrimination in all forms, was willing to be flexible in not forcing inter-caste dining. This perhaps reflected Gandhi’s dependence in dealing with Tamil issues on Brahmin lawyers like C Rajagopalachari (who, to be fair, was not as personally prejudiced), but it could also stem from his own fastidious eating habits. Gandhi and the Brahmins shared a powerful sense of bodily purity based on food. (via Meat Eating & Inter-Caste Dinners Continue To Be The Hot Topics Of Political Debate In Tamil Nadu BY VIKRAM DOCTOR).

Here is someone who writes about food seriously - and usually with serious insight. He is best when he is writing about Indian food. He is also sponsored by various farmer co-operatives in the West - and then he starts plugging Western food, where he ends up being rather trite and synthetic. He is worth a read on Indian food though.