The Great Indian Chutney Hunt brings home your favourite chutneys

All about the Great Indian Chutney Hunt, which has Chennai-based food historian Rakesh Raghunathan and Chutnefy exploring regional chutneys and their culinary traditions.

Tamil society has traditionally fought over two things. If it was MGR or Sivaji Ganesan in the past, it is Rajinikanth or Kamal Haasan, and Ajith or Vijay fan wars that dominate conversations now. In food, the debate — between sambar and chutney — continues.

Food historian Rakesh Raghunathan has already picked sides. “I would go with chutney,” he says, confidently, “It has variety. The varieties are what tantalise your taste buds.”

Rakesh recently curated the Great Indian Chutney Hunt with Chutnefy, the five-second chutney brand, that took digital viewers on a culinary journey as he discovered the secret behind four iconic chutneys: dosakaya from Andhra Pradesh, ellu pajji from Karnataka, kara chutney from Gopu Iyengar Tiffin Centre in Madurai and kanthari milagu chammanthi from the Malabar region in Kerala.

“It was exciting to document chutneys with rich histories. We chose culinary custodians from different states as that helped showcase their cooking traditions too,” he says.

“Armed with these experiences from the Great Indian Chutney Hunt, Rakesh headed back to Chutnefy’s factory in Chennai, trying to recreate these dishes as authentically as possible. There, the team replicated the method used in all the original recipes, which included a dehydration process to get the recipe ideal for batch production. “Even minor details, like the amount of ingredients, were noted down. We made sure that the final product matched the taste and consistency of the original as closely as possible. It’s about preserving the essence of the chutney, so people at home can experience the same flavours,” he explains.

For Chutnefy, a brand that targets the needs of modern consumers, this portfolio addition is a move closer to its ultimate aim of enhancing variety for consumers. CEO and co-founder, Prasanna Natarajan says, “Creators are often protective of their recipes, but our goal was to make hyper-local and not-widely-available chutneys accessible to everyone. Our future plans involve co-creating recipes with anyone who has an interesting chutney idea.”

Priced at ₹145, these limited-edition chutneys can be ordered from chutnefy.com