The Journey of Pepper: From Spice to Identity

When the East India Company first arrived on the shores of India, the food they ate in their first factories was not so different from that of Britain. It was all stews, heavy with butter and stuffed with spices, almonds, cinnamon, fruit and raisins, scooped up by bread. Although the Portuguese introduced the chilli to Goa at the start of the 16th century, it had not yet travelled into North India. Over the course of the next 200 years the cuisines of the British and the Indians diverged, in no small part due to the chilli. Listen as William and Anita explore the wonderful history of the East Indian Company at Table.

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