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A Visual Encyclopedia of Indian Food
Food in a Frame
Artist
Exhibition Opening: 6:00 pm | Friday, 1 August
Timings: 11:00 am – 8:00 pm
Exhibition on show until Sunday, 3 August
Walkthroughs:
Friday, 1 August | 6:30 pm
Saturday, 2 August | 12:00 pm & 5:00 pm
Sunday, 3 August | 11:00 am
Talk: Sunday, 3 August | 11:30 am
What does it mean to document Indian food on our own terms?
In a world where food histories often follow European ways of seeing and telling, how do we begin to build something that feels rooted, visual, and ours?
In this conversation, Priya Mani shares her journey of creating a Visual Encyclopaedia of Indian Foods — an A to Z that brings together research, memory, cooking, and drawing. From ingredients and techniques to the everyday things that make up Indian kitchens, she’s been slowly building a new kind of food archive.
Together, we’ll explore how food can become a visual language — and how each of us might begin to map the foods that shape our lives.
Far more than a cookbook or catalog, the Visual Encyclopedia of Indian Foods weaves together the stories behind what we eat: the seasons that shape our crops, the tools that grind and stir, the vessels that hold and serve, and the communities that grow, cook, and share. Each photograph is accompanied by accessible, insightful text that grounds the visuals in context and highlights connections.
This is India’s food story told through form, color, and the quiet power of detail.
Artist
Priya Mani
Priya Mani is an award-winning designer, culinary artist and author whose work explores the cultural and scientific dimensions of flavour. Through Appetite Studios, her Copenhagen-based practice, she collaborates with both cultural and industrial organisations to investigate how we perceive and produce taste. She has written for the BBC, Bloomsbury Press, Bloomsbury Academic and Phaidon Press. Her work has been shown in various art events and featured in international publications. Mani is a Trustee of the Oxford Symposium of Food & Cookery and on the Board of the British Guild of Food Writers, representing diversity.
