THIS 128-year-old Royal menu reveals what Maharajas ate in 1897

On January 31, 1897, Baroda hosted more than a royal dinner - it staged a statement. The Maharaja of Baroda welcomed Maharaja Scindia of Gwalior at a time when India was firmly under British rule. While imperial authority dominated the political landscape, princely states expressed their relevance in subtler, more sophisticated ways.

One of those ways was cuisine.

Within palace walls, food was not just indulgence. It was image-making. It was diplomacy. It was a language of prestige.

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A 128-Year-Old Menu Resurfaces

The evening might have faded into obscurity if not for a remarkable archival survival. The printed menu from that night still exists and is now housed in an American archive. Its recent rediscovery by historian Neha Vermani during research - and subsequent sharing on X - sparked widespread curiosity.

Royal feasts are expected to be grand. What made this one extraordinary was not its extravagance, but its unmistakable European identity.

Not a Traditional Dastarkhwan

Instead of a classical Mughal spread rich in regional symbolism, the courses echoed continental Europe.

The meal began with almond custard. Fish appeared dressed in mayonnaise sauce. Chicken soup was infused with truffles - a luxury ingredient strongly associated with French gastronomy. Italian-style mutton cutlets followed, along with roasted partridges served with peas.

Artichokes arrived coated in demi-glace. Even the vegetable rice curry bore a French title. The evening concluded with cream-filled apples and pistachio ice cream.

This was neither entirely Indian nor purely European. It was something deliberate - a hybrid table crafted with intention.

Further, she also shared another Royal menu of South Asian cuisines for dinners hosted by Maharaja of Baroda for Maharaja of Gwalior on 29 Jan and 1 Feb 1897.

Global Connections of Indian Kings

By the late nineteenth century, princely India was deeply connected to global cultural networks. Royal kitchens employed French chefs. Service styles mirrored English dining etiquette. Ingredients flowed in through colonial trade routes. Menus were often printed in English and French on embossed stationery.

Across courts in Hyderabad, Mysore, and Travancore, similar culinary patterns emerged: clear soups, continental cutlets, puddings, and ice creams appearing beside Indian dishes.

Dining halls adopted European table settings. Courses followed continental sequencing. But this was not imitation for its own sake.

It was positioning.

Indian rulers were asserting that they belonged in global elite circles. Mastery of French cuisine signalled education and worldliness. Hosting such dinners reinforced stature - both among fellow royalty and in the eyes of colonial administrators.

Food as Political Performance

The Baroda-Gwalior dinner captures a moment of transformation. Under British supremacy, princely authority had to adapt. Where earlier courts projected power through ritualistic feasts rooted in tradition, the late 1800s demanded cosmopolitan fluency.

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In this context, the palace kitchen became more than a culinary space. It became a theatre of identity. Every truffle, every printed French term, every European course order communicated modernity.

The 1897 menu shows that sovereignty, though constrained, was still expressed - not through rebellion, but through refinement.

Sometimes, history is best understood not through treaties or proclamations, but through what was plated at dinner.