As the leaders of the world’s largest economies gathered in Delhi this weekend, the focus was on geopolitics and millet. India, using its G20 presidency, sought to position itself as an economic powerhouse and leader of the global south, while also promoting millet as an environmentally sustainable cereal. The country’s government has campaigned to elevate millet’s status, leading to the UN General Assembly declaring this year as the “international year of millet.” To showcase millet’s potential, a specially curated summit lunch was served to foreign leaders, featuring dishes like crispy millet leaves with yogurt and chutney, jackfruit galette with glazed forest mushroom, and cardamom-scented barnyard millet pudding. The spouses of the G20 leaders also had the opportunity to visit a farm-to-fork millet experience.
India is the largest producer of millet globally, but the crop has gradually disappeared from the national cuisine. However, millet is a resilient crop that can thrive in hot environments and requires less water than rice, making it more environmentally friendly and profitable for farmers. The Indian government aims to create a global millet craze, similar to the resurgence of quinoa, by promoting it as a “superfood.”
Hotels in Delhi hosting the world leaders have fully embraced the millet movement. Chefs have incorporated millet into various dishes, like pancakes, idli, dosa, poha, puris, pasta, risotto, ravioli, noodles, fried rice, and pad thai. By showcasing the versatility of millet, chefs aim to dispel the notion that it is bland and show that it can be delicious with the right spices. Despite being slightly difficult to digest, when cooked well, millet offers great flavors.
Chefs at the Taj Palace, where the Chinese premier was staying, have also experimented with millet-based dishes. One standout creation is a variation of khichdi, traditionally made with rice and lentils but now using millet. The chef expressed surprise at how well his millet experiments turned out and predicts that millet-based dishes will become mainstream in restaurants both in India and abroad.
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