Re-Orienting Taste: Interactive Workshop

Each of us has an edible archive of our own, comprising all the foods we have ever eaten. Our collective edible archive has changed drastically over the last 50 years, and many of the heirloom indigenous ingredients that have evolved in harmony with the soil and environment are disappearing fast from our plates and palates. Edible Archives, the award-winning restaurant and art/research project based in Goa, India, works with indigenous ingredients at the intersection of art, culture, and food to allow for collective mindful attention to the sensory catalog that belongs to all the people involved in growing, sourcing, preparing, and eating a meal. Edible Archives was one of the Infra Projects at the Kochi Muziris Biennale 2018-19, where it showcased over 30 varieties of indigenous rice. Since then, Edible Archives has participated in art residencies (ranging from Suzhou, PRC, and Taiwan to rural Karnataka) and has been a member of the international Food Art Research (FAR) Network. Their work has been featured at the Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa; Sustaina, New Delhi; Experimenta Arts, Kolkata; and the Ragbag Festival of the Performing Arts, Kerala, among others.

Tejaswini Niranjana is a writer, translator and scholar based at Gitam University, Bangalore, India, where she is Director of the Centre for Asian Studies. She has previously curated, under the West Heavens project, an India-China musical collaboration, which resulted in the Grammy-nominated double album Re/Semblance: Saath-Saath in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
She has worked with Edible Archives from 2019 onwards to assemble programmes around food and healing, with a special focus on Indian and Chinese modes of addressing these domains.

Anumitra Ghosh Dastidar is a chef and co-founder of Edible Archives, an award-winning restaurant and research-based culinary project in Goa, India. With over a decade of experience in the food and beverage industry, she has worked in leading restaurants across Southeast Asia, South Africa, and India. Her expertise lies in indigenous ingredients, sustainable methods, and modern interpretations of regional cuisines.

Edible Archives was featured as an Infra Project at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018-19, where it showcased 30 varieties of indigenous rice. Since then, it has participated in international art residencies and is a member of the Food Art Research (FAR) Network. Most recently, Dastidar established Bento Bento and Yo Colombo in Bangalore, further expanding her culinary footprint.

In her curatorial and artistic practice, she explores the intersection of food, language, and culture, drawing on her background in Cognitive Linguistics (PhD, University of Delhi). She views cuisine as a structured language, where the interplay of form, ingredients, and tradition creates space for both preservation and innovation.

Shalini Krishan is the co-founder of Edible Archives, an award-winning restaurant based in Goa, India. She works at the intersection of food, art, and business, to champion sustainability as a practice in the food and beverage industry. 

Krishan uses her interdisciplinary experience as an editor at independent publishing houses for over 12 years,  working on health, nutrition, and the environment, to inform her work. Her interest in Edible Archives stems from her passion for sustaining and crafting narratives that nurture a diversity of viewpoints, indigenous ingredients and foodways.  As the co-founder of Edible Archives, she heads research on sustainability as a practice in the food and beverage industry, on indigenous ingredients, and on the food cultures surrounding them. She is also responsible for brand building for Edible Archives, Bento Bento and Yo Colombo.  

Recently, she has taught two courses on Food and Writing for Ahmedabad University. Presently, she is co-writing a book based on Edible Archives' research into culinary and medicinal traditions in India and China.