Mumbai-based chef-baker Heena Kausar Raad, clearly unfazed by the fear of destroying two of India’s most beloved food items, unveiled her latest creation to a class of young students. With the dramatic flair of a magician, she presented BPP: fragrant biryani stuffed inside crunchy golgappas, instead of the OG aloo, matar and Masala X that every phuchka/golgappawala has up his sleeve. The reaction? Stunned expressions. A collective existential crisis unfolding in real-time. As we said, we’re no authenticity-fascists. Food, like life, is meant to be played with. Authenticity is often just a fancy way of keeping things boring. Some ideas, like pineapple on pizza, are eternally divisive, but are relished by many nonetheless. But BPP has to be a culinary felony of the highest order that literally kills two dishes with one stone. If saying no to it means coming across as utterly biryani bourgeois, so be it.
