serving with stainless steel

Serving with stainless steel

We ate several times in Indian restaurants. And every hotel offers a great portion of Indian food in their buffet.

Except for those westernized or more upscale restaurants and hotels, I noticed that in a traditional India restaurant which targeted mainly ordinary Indians, almost everything was served in stainless steel utensil.

I could understand that street food serving in stainless steel stuff because the metal ones are lighter and tougher than ceramics, and easier to clean when compared to plastic plates. However, I was wondering why they use them in a fair restaurant where there are no such worries about carrying fragile tableware. However, it seems that only those very traditional Indian restaurants serve that way - the first Indian restaurant we went in Delhi served everything from Thali to ice cream with stainless steel sets.

Is there any symbolic meaning behind the usage of stainless steel stuff serving traditional/authentic Indian food? It seems that using stainless steel plates is a tradition, and represents the essence of “Indian” food. Even an upscale traditional family Indian restaurant served with the metal tableware.

Referring to Stainless Steel Memories in Mother Pious Lady, there are two major characteristics that enabled steel stuff hold a significant role in everyday life of middle class Indians: one is functionality, as it is long-lasting and affordable; another is modernity, because it has no past in India. It was something that middle class could pursue comfortably, and for the classes below, it represented something aspirational. In this sense, it could represent a status.

Moreover, as food is a major issue in everyday India, every utensil carried some sort of memory so that stood for some specialty. Revealed in the article, steel was perceived as "pure" and "indestructible," incorporating the two virtues that are highly valued in kitchen. After introduced as "ever-silver," stainless steel interwove itself with the everyday life of Indian middle class as its substance "connoting rooted adhesion" within a family.

Family and food, stainless steel utensil was engraved with the two most important aspects of India. Even though as time goes by the importance and position of it has faded a bit, the memory it has created stays, rooted in the heart of Indians. That might be the answer for my question that why the food "for Indians" is mainly served with the "ever-silver."