Every major city in the world probably has a restaurant called Taste of India. Serving Indian food, these restaurants promise to deliver the essence of a country through select menu items, wall hangings, and softly audible classical music. A consumable brand offering India on its plate, these restaurants extend themselves as souvenirs. As markers of experience, they summarize an imagination of India consolidating it as take away ‘naan bread’ or tabletop pictures of the Taj Mahal. Drawing from these restaurants, their branding, and their identity, The Real Taste of India offers a commentary on homogenized national identity and the commercialization of culture.

This brochure was published on the occasion of at the kitchen table #2 curated by Reliable Copy at Ark Foundation for the Arts, Baroda. It serves as a catalogue of the installation’s various components, a record of its previous iterations, and as a proposal for future presentations.

Chinar Shah and Nihaal Faizal are artists based in Bangalore, India. Together, they have initiated two projects: The Real Taste of India, 2017—a work featuring souvenirs for Taste of India restaurants around the world and Photocopied Blow Out, 2016—a photocopied version of the Brian De Palma film Blow Out from 1981. -Publisher