UP’s new cuisine map leaves meat off the menu, lists only veg ‘iconic’ dishes

Lucknow : Uttar Pradesh has notified an exhaustive district-wise culinary map under its ‘One District-One Cuisine’ (ODOC) scheme, assigning each of the state’s 75 districts a set of signature dishes for branding, marketing and export. Every item on the list is vegetarian.

Lucknow, whose Unesco recognition as a global city of gastronomy the chief minister cited when announcing the scheme last November, has been assigned rewari, mango products, chaat and malai makhan. Its galawati kebab, Awadhi biryani, nahari kulcha and Kakori kebab — the dishes that have made the state capital’s culinary identity significant well beyond its borders — do not appear.

Moradabadi biryani, among the most recognised dishes from the state’s west, is absent as well from the list notified on Tuesday.

Gautam Budh Nagar, the National Capital Region district that houses Noida and Greater Noida, has been assigned cake and bakery products. Raebareli’s entry reads simply: Spices.

The scheme was announced by chief minister Yogi Adityanath on November 8 last year and formally launched by Union home minister Amit Shah on January 24 this year, modelled on the state’s ‘One District, One Product’ programme. The government has earmarked ₹150 crore for implementation. Artisans and entrepreneurs will be eligible for subsidies of up to 25%, capped at ₹20 lakh.The subsidy can only be availed once. The finer details of the subsidy scheme are yet to be released.

Across many districts, the list does reflect a genuine and varied regional tradition. Azamgarh’s white carrot halwa, Mahoba’s date jaggery, Hamirpur’s Bundeli dal-based preparations, Varanasi’s thandai, lassi and Banarsi paan, and Jaunpur’s imarti represent the kind of locally rooted, historically grounded food the scheme was conceived to document. Agra’s petha and Mathura’s peda and chhapan bhog — among the state’s best-known sweet traditions — are prominently included.

“The objective is to increase the presence of UP’s cuisines on India’s and the world’s food platter by improving quality, packaging, branding and marketing practices,” said Shashi Bhushan Lal Susheel, principal secretary, UP MSME and Export Promotion department. The scheme envisages shelf-life improvements, quality standardisation, a dedicated logo for each identified delicacy, and market access through festivals, exhibitions and online aggregators.

But the all-vegetarian character of the list, and the choices made within it, have drawn scepticism.

Pushpesh Pant, president of the Cuisine Society of India and food historian, was unmoved. “I find this exercise laughable and not worthy of serious comment,” he said, adding that the word ‘cuisine’ was being fundamentally misunderstood. “There should at least be a dish that is distinctly identifiable.” Districts, he noted, are administrative units periodically redrawn from existing ones, severing shared culinary inheritance in the process. “Food doesn’t recognise man-made borders.”

A senior MSME official, who asked not to be named, said many factors were considered before the ODOC list was finalised. These included branding, packaging, and passing benefits to the rightful claimants.