42 min
The Dream of Two Kitchens Bad Table Manners
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- Food
This episode presents a micro-history of contemporary Indian kitchen design, as told by Manju Sara Rajan, the editor of a prominent design magazine, and Madhav Raman, an award-winning architect in New Delhi. We look at what lies behind the urban, aspirational dream of two kitchens — one visible and one concealed — which has roots in a historical wet and dry kitchen binary. We also look at what interventions open and modular kitchens have made in this history, and what it means for gender and caste politics that still lie at the heart of Indian kitchen design. How do urban Indians negotiate the waves of aromas and the inevitability of oil splatters that come with making Indian food with their desire to showcase their Scandinavian-inspired kitchens in India all at once? We talk about how in urban India, the aspiration is really to have it all.
Topics covered in this episode:
Min 1:25: Meet Manju Sara Rajan
Min 1:58: Concept of the wet and dry kitchen
Min 4:30: Meet Madhav Raman
Min 4:57: Economic liberalization in India
Min 9:50: How the new apartment kitchen transformed the way people cooked
Min 13:53: The front-of-house and back-of-house split
Min 17:25: The fridge’s place in the Indian kitchen
Min 23:06: Vastu-compliance
Min 25:04: Future of Indian kitchen design
Min 26:01: Gendered labor divide
Min 30:07: How COVID affected Indian kitchens
Learn more about this episode of Bad Table Manners at www.whetstoneradio.com, on IG and Twitter at @whetstoneradio, and YouTube at WhetstoneRadio.
Guests: Manju Sara Rajan (@manjusararajan), Madhav Raman (@anagramarchitects)
This episode presents a micro-history of contemporary Indian kitchen design, as told by Manju Sara Rajan, the editor of a prominent design magazine, and Madhav Raman, an award-winning architect in New Delhi. We look at what lies behind the urban, aspirational dream of two kitchens — one visible and one concealed — which has roots in a historical wet and dry kitchen binary. We also look at what interventions open and modular kitchens have made in this history, and what it means for gender and caste politics that still lie at the heart of Indian kitchen design. How do urban Indians negotiate the waves of aromas and the inevitability of oil splatters that come with making Indian food with their desire to showcase their Scandinavian-inspired kitchens in India all at once? We talk about how in urban India, the aspiration is really to have it all.
Topics covered in this episode:
Min 1:25: Meet Manju Sara Rajan
Min 1:58: Concept of the wet and dry kitchen
Min 4:30: Meet Madhav Raman
Min 4:57: Economic liberalization in India
Min 9:50: How the new apartment kitchen transformed the way people cooked
Min 13:53: The front-of-house and back-of-house split
Min 17:25: The fridge’s place in the Indian kitchen
Min 23:06: Vastu-compliance
Min 25:04: Future of Indian kitchen design
Min 26:01: Gendered labor divide
Min 30:07: How COVID affected Indian kitchens
Learn more about this episode of Bad Table Manners at www.whetstoneradio.com, on IG and Twitter at @whetstoneradio, and YouTube at WhetstoneRadio.
Guests: Manju Sara Rajan (@manjusararajan), Madhav Raman (@anagramarchitects)
42 min