Foreign Influences on Rajasthan Food

The royal families, alone, could claim some degree of variety in their meals because of variety in their meals because of the influence. Rajasthani cuisines had been influenced by two major factions. First, of the Mughal court, and later the British. The Mughal cuisines were very difficult to make because of their huge variation of ingredients, all of which are harder to come by in the desert, even in the erstwhile palaces. The Mewar or Udaipur family, forced to flee and hide in the rocky countryside y the Mughals, devised the form of barbecue called sooley. The Kac-hchwaha family of Jaipur, closest to the Mughals through proximity and matrimony, went on to create one of the state’s finest delicacies.

The British influence was to formalize the manner in which the meal was eaten at the table, and to make the Rajasthani dishes somewhat blander. Over the years, however, even this Indianised somewhat, with stews and bakes and roasts including spices, so the peculiar Anglo-Indian cuisines of the palaces too created an all-too distinctive cuisine. It also groomed the royals into the Western style of dining habits.

Old retainers and chefs can still stir up authentic shepherd’s pie or French onion soup, but the conquest, even then, was far from complete. So, much so that even when going to London, for work or on pleasure, the princess would cart their own khansamas to cook their meals for them. The Maharaja of Jaipur even carried his own supply of Ganga water with him, to use on his English trip, which is the purpose to which the large silver urns displayed at the City Palace Museum in Jaipur were put.