Not Your Butter Chicken celebrates vibrant South Asian stories

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Indian food is much more than butter chicken.

Underscoring that point, while also exploring and celebrating the impact of South Asian communities on food and wine across Western Canada, is the endeavor of the new documentary series, Not Your Butter Chicken.

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“We have so much history. We are so rich. We also have very different food,” says host Shiva Reddy. “It’s not just butter chicken.”

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The Vancouver-born and based food and wine expert (Reddy is a sommelier at Michelin-starred restaurant Burdock & Co. and a food writer for CBC) takes viewers on a four-city tour in search of stories from South Asia. so integral to the history of the region.

The four-part Telus Original documentary series from award-winning filmmakers Priyanka Desai and Joanna Wong premiered May 1 for Asian Heritage Month on TELUS Optik TV and online at see.telusoriginals.com.

In the episodes, Reddy visits Kamloops and Kelowna in BC, and Fort McMurray and Lethbridge in Alberta. At each stop, Reddy meets with community leaders such as reporter Meera Bains, hockey player Dampy Brar, Punjabi-Cree artist Madeson Singh, chef Aman Dosanj and the team at family-run Kalala Organic Winery.

For Reddy, creating the show was as much about educating viewers as it was about further exploring the cultural influences on food and wine itself.

“Having to grow up in spaces that are very homogeneous, eventually, over time, you constantly assimilate without even realizing it,” Reddy says. “Everything within our world of food and wine, especially wine, is very much about looking at the world through a Eurocentric lens.

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“Getting older and realizing how powerful it is to have what we have, which is this beautiful culture and the connection to our past or our families, through food.”

Throughout his travels for the show, Reddy enjoyed the diversity he discovered among the stories.

“It is so rich and so full of culture. You can live an hour from me, or where my family is from, and the way we talk and cook is tremendously different,” says Reddy. “I think the biggest thing I learned, especially going to places like Kamloops, was how long South Asians have been here. And how much history we have. And all the things that have happened because of South Asians — like building a railroad, sawmills, being in the logging industry, being farmers — you just can’t see these stories.”

As a young South Asian working in the wine world, Reddy remembers facing adversity and having to find his own path to the prestigious sommelier position he holds today.

“It was like, ‘This sucks.’ And this cannot continue,’” Reddy recalls of his experience. “’And it’s going to be complicated, but someone has to do it.’ I wish someone would do this for me, but they didn’t even have the chance to be in the world. And if I can be in this world, I can also give back and do that.”

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After a decade in the industry, Reddy says she is finally seeing other young South Asian women emerging in the wine world.

“Recently someone said, ‘I saw you and I didn’t even think this was a job!’ And I thought, ‘That’s incredibly cool,’” says Reddy, who also broke boundaries as a competitive hockey player.

The show also focuses on Reddy as she talks about her personal experiences, with the rawest moments coming from those involving her mother. latchmi.

Immigrating to Vancouver from Fiji, where Reddy says she was among the country’s first female police officers, Latchmi moved to Canada to marry Reddy’s father. Tragedy struck the family when he died at a young age, leaving Reddy’s mother struggling to make ends meet while also finding a sense of community in her new home.

“She didn’t really know anyone here and didn’t really have a community. Finally, she was in a car accident and lost all mobility in one leg and could no longer work. Then I had to start working,” Reddy recalls. “At the time she was playing hockey very competitively, so I had to split my time between school, hockey and work.”

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Finding a job in the restaurant industry, Reddy worked his way up and eventually fell in love with wine. Today, Reddy continues to care for his mother, who has dementia.

Dealing with the illness, Reddy has worked to help keep her mother connected to her story through recipes, while also working to record the ones that weren’t written down.

“With my mom, she never wrote recipes and I feel like that’s something very classic for Indian moms. And with that, it always depends on taste,” says Reddy. “Thank God for being in the world of wine because you always go for taste and always for memory. So, oddly enough, the two are very connected.”

Reddy says that despite the illness, his mother continues to instill in him the importance of ‘sewa’ or being of service to others.

“It’s a really beautiful South Asian concept,” says Reddy. “It’s the idea that no matter what you have, you’re constantly giving back.”

That guiding principle is a continuous thread throughout Not Your Butter Chicken, Reddy says. And one that ultimately helped her decide to get so personal with the show’s viewers.

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“There is always this idea in Asian culture, especially in South Asian culture and especially among girls, that you always have to behave in an appropriate and appropriate way. And you don’t give much of your heart. You have to give everything you have, but you can’t really share. And that was very difficult,” says Reddy. “In time, I would see how much that practice really hurt people. “It couldn’t really be you.”

Reddy hopes that by speaking out about her mother’s struggle with dementia (and her role as primary caregiver), she can help others who might be living in a similar situation.

“People should share those stories,” Reddy says. “It would suck if I knew someone close to me was also going through that experience and I couldn’t be there to help them.”

With the first season of Not Your Butter Chicken out in the world, Reddy is more than open to the idea of ​​a second (or even third) season.

“Honestly, there’s always room on your plate for the things you love,” Reddy says. “It just adds more flavor. So that would be the dream. “I would really love that.”

[email protected]

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