Beyond momos: Meghalaya’s chefs are reclaiming the state’s culinary identity
Ahmedaki Laloo missed the taste of his hometown Meghalaya when he was studying to become a chef at Manipal University. “I would tell my mother to send some pickles, fermented bamboo shoots, fish pickle and condiments,” recalls the Shillong-born chef, who recently arrived in Chennai as part of Zhouyu Hosts, a culinary pop-up series that brings chefs from across India and Asia to the city.
But like others in the Northeast, she often worried about what her peers would think about the food: “People would make fun of us and say my food stinks,” Ahmedaki says.
A meal at Rynsan in Shillong | Photo Credit: Special Editing
But when he saw how proud his classmates and friends from other parts of the country were about their cooking, something changed. “They used to show off with it. Then I realized, if I can eat ghee and curry leaves, why can’t you eat our food?” said Ahmedaki.
This realization had a profound impact on him. After graduating, he worked in various restaurants across the country and returned home in the winter of 2020 to found A’Origins, a culinary company that aims to bring the cuisine of this region to the rest of the world. “I wanted to express myself and tell stories through food,” he says.
The food is served at Zhouyu Hosts, a pop-up kitchen series that brings chefs from across India and Asia to the city. | Photo Credit: Special Editing
Like Ahmedaki, more and more chefs with roots in Meghalaya are choosing to return to their culinary heritage, opening restaurants in their home states that explore indigenous cuisines in fresh and exciting ways, “bringing a new light to the local cuisine, something like (Peruvian chef and restaurateur, founder of Lima) Virgilio Martínez did with Peruvian food or (Italian chef and restaurateur, founder of Osteria Francescana) Massimo Bottura with Italian with…takes a classic and takes it to the next level,” says Shillong-based chef Reuben Sooting, founder of Lady Aiko, India’s first integrated hotpot and Korean barbecue experience.
Laloo in Ahmed | Photo Credit: Special Editing
According to him, this is a relatively new phenomenon. “Even 10-12 years ago, the food scene in Shillong was very different. You didn’t have many restaurants and cafes; on top of that, there were no people doing things with local influences,” says Reuben, who believes government policy has played an important role in facilitating change. “The government is now heavily focused on tourism, which includes our food,” he says. Ahmedaki also agrees. “I’m really grateful that the government is focusing on this issue. We’ve been able to express ourselves better because the number of footsteps is increasing every year,” he says.
More and more chefs from Meghalaya are exploring their local cuisine in fresh and exciting ways, | Photo Credit: Special Editing
For musician and entrepreneur Hammarsing Kharhmar, who founded Rynsan in Shillong with his wife Riyaki Jana, it is a positive trend that tourists are not coming to Shillong just to “look at our beautiful hills and waterfalls or breathe in this fresh air”. “They say I want to eat our food, this is something that has changed in the last five or ten years,” says Hammarsing, who believes people are finally starting to understand that Shillong is not the home of momo chow but instead has a rich, forward-thinking food culture. “People are very interested in local cuisine, and that’s decreasing because I’ve seen a lot of new places opening,” he notes.
Hammarsing Kharhmar believes tourism has gone beyond Meghalaya’s beautiful hills and waterfalls | Photo Credit: Special Editing
The emergence of restaurants like Rynsan, which “tell their own stories, find ways to express that identity that is both local and contemporary,” is indicative of a larger shift, according to former journalist and food writer Damini Ralleigh, co-founder of Indicā in Delhi. “For too long, cuisines have been viewed as regional, as if states were watertight compartments with no fluidity across borders. But cultural boundaries are extremely permeable, and when you talk about cuisines in general terms, these nuances are lost,” he says.
Meghalaya has a rich, forward-thinking food culture | Photo Credit: Special Editing
He thinks the Northeast is an interesting focal point for this trend, given that India has long treated it as a single culinary category. “It transforms the cultural and ecological history of an entire region into a monolithic identity, whereas, as we all know, the Northeast encompasses many tribes, languages, ecological and agricultural systems, and food traditions,” Damini says.
Smoked meats and pickles are deep-rooted culinary traditions in this region. Photo Credit: Special Editing
But he thinks this perception is changing as people become more interested in regional culinary delicacies, not just in India but globally. For the Northeastern states, including Meghalaya, this shift is particularly important because it “allows these communities to reclaim their own narrative. They are no longer represented from an outsider’s perspective.”
This allows them to express their own identity and history,” says Damini, a view echoed by Ahmedaki. “We have always been in the shadows, and it is our responsibility to do justice to what our ancestors have passed down from generation to generation.”
The writer was in Shillong upon the invitation of Seeti Movement, whose second edition was held in Shillong, Meghalaya.
It was published – 16 July 2026 06:15 IST
