Editor's note

Hi, I’m Tanushree.

Paar began from a disagreement with a dominant narrative that shapes how South Asian food is discussed outside the subcontinent. The idea that food made in diaspora is a diluted or lesser version of what exists in the motherland.

I don’t see it that way.

South Asian food outside the subcontinent is not an imitation. It is its own evolution shaped by migration, constraint, adaptation, innovation, market forces and memory. It carries different conditions, different ingredients, different histories of access. And because of that, it produces its own forms of authenticity.

Across India, Australia, and the United States, working between food, research, and cultural programming, I have seen how easily these distinctions get flattened. Regional specificity is often collapsed into a single idea of “Indian food,” and diaspora food is frequently positioned as secondary rather than as an extension of the same living system.

Paar is an attempt to resist that flattening.

It is a living archive of South Asian food cultures, built through essays, interviews, and oral histories. It treats food as evidence of movement of people, labour, trade, adaptation, and continuity. My work as a researcher, pastry chef, and writer informs this perspective, as does my ongoing book on Indian sweets and their histories. But Paar is not an extension of that work in a personal sense. It is a space for documenting how food cultures evolve across geography without losing legitimacy.

Alongside writing and research, I hope to work with chefs, restaurants, and food businesses to develop narratives that are historically grounded and materially specific. Over time, I envision collaborating on menus, food concepts, and cultural programming that draw from regional histories, ingredient lineages, and the lived realities of diaspora food cultures.

Paar will continue to grow as both an archive and a working platform through publishing, conversations, collaborations, and occasional programming with people and spaces who are engaged in food as cultural practice rather than performance.

If you would like to contribute or collaborate, you can reach me at tanushree@frompaar.com.