Khushbu Shah’s eyes light up the moment she begins to talk about food. “I’m obsessed with how food shapes so much of the world,” says the Los Angeles-based journalist. “It’s such an interesting lens to view everything through, like politics, business, the environment, history and culture. It’s not just about what’s on the plate.” Shah’s stints at Thrillist (an online media outlet covering food, drink, travel and entertainment) and Food & Wine magazine flipped the script on which food-industry people—and which cuisines—should matter at a time when the prominent critic positions in the U.S. (including those at Bon Appétit, GQ, Esquire and many other publications) were (and still are) dominated by white men. Now, with the release of her heartfelt and humorous debut cookbook, Amrikan: 125 Recipes From the Indian American Diaspora, Shah is stepping into the spotlight.

When the 28-year-old Indian-American joined Food & Wine in 2019, she became the youngest ever to land the restaurant-editor gig and was also the first person of colour to hold the position. “I’m often the only one—or one of two or three people—who is not white,” she says. “I feel like I have to represent not only South Asians but also everybody else [who’s] not in the room. I was given an incredible platform, [but simply] doing a good job wasn’t enough for me; [I had to do] a great job so no one could ever feel like it was a mistake to hire someone of colour.” Over her game-changing four-year tenure, Shah transformed the magazine’s “Best New Chefs” franchise—an annual ranking that was started in 1988—making it more inclusive.

With the backing of editor-in-chief Hunter Lewis, Shah and the wider Food & Wine team introduced new systems, expanded the judging parameters to include pastry chefs (many of whom are women and tend to fly under the radar) and shifted the focus onto traits like leadership ability and workplace safety. “That, to me, is what makes a really great chef in this day and age—they can not only cook super well but also lead super well,” she says. In the wake of the #MeToo movement, the magazine employed background checks and anonymous staff surveys (in both English and Spanish) to weed out any problematic characters, who are usually only known about within the whisper network of the industry. “It’s not a perfect system…I’m sure some bad actors have slipped through our filters,” says Shah. “We are limited in the number of words, photos and stories we can [produce], especially in a physical magazine, so I wanted to make sure that space was going to people who were interested not only in cooking great food but also uplifting those around them.”

Flaws aside, that level of thoughtful consideration when it comes to how they judge restaurants and chefs is still light years ahead of the outdated Eurocentric dining criteria used by some of the more-well-known ranking lists in Canadian publications. It’s no secret that list-making is highly subjective, but isn’t that more reason to utilize diverse perspectives and palates? “I’ve always felt I had to be 100 times better to get the same thing,” says Shah. “I get very excited when I see someone who’s South Asian and maybe a little mediocre getting success because that, to me, is progress. It’s very exciting when you don’t have to be super exemplary to have success.”

While Shah believes the industry in the U.S. now seems more interested in diverse stories, she doesn’t think the gatekeepers—the people controlling budgets—have ultimately changed. La Liste’s 1,000 “best” restaurants in the world 2024 ranking is perhaps a more telling sign of how little has shifted on our home turf since the supposed racial reckoning of 2020. The culinary aggregator compiles ratings from thousands of publications, hundreds of guidebooks and millions of online reviews from 200 countries. Despite Canada’s cultural diversity, all 19 of our country’s establishments on the list serve up French- and Italian-inspired cuisine—and many of those fine-dining restaurants have sizable budgets for media previews and PR-generated coverage.

After four years, Shah left Food & Wine last October in search of a new adventure. Since then, she has launched an exciting weekly Substack newsletter called Tap Is Fine and cranked out her own cookbook. Having travelled across the U.S. many times over, she was able to fill Amrikan (which is how desis say “American”) with bite-size nuggets of history as well as explorations of migration patterns and the natural evolution and blending of two cultures. Take, for example, sticky buns filled with carrot halwa, a refreshing mojito inspired by the herbaceous, minty water served with Pani Puri (an addictive Indian street snack) or the fun Indian-pizza flex currently sweeping south of the border, a trend that prompted the “Pizza Party” chapter (which includes a masala-corn riff that is tangy, sweet, hot and gooey). Then there are the dishes that Shah created because she wished they existed, such as her Paneer Lasagna (or LaSaagNa). “I love lasagna. I love Saag Paneer. So the fact that these hadn’t been combined before is wild to me,” she says. “My mom looked at me and said, ‘Huh, this is actually good.’ I was like, ‘Wow!’” To help dispel the myth that “Indian food is so complicated and has eight million ingredients and 97 spices,” Shah includes plenty of weekday-friendly homestyle staples, like Cabbage Nu Shaak (stir-fried cabbage made delicious with turmeric, salt and Kashmiri red-chili powder in five minutes flat).

Now that her cookbook is finally out in the world, Shah admits that she already has a part two swirling around her brain. “I want to do as much storytelling as I can across as many mediums as possible,” she says with a smile. “There’s a lot to tell, and it’s exciting.”

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