Gwyneth Paltrow surprised many on Instagram on August 15 when she posted a video of her making besan chilla from scratch. However, soon after the Iron Man actor shared the clip on social media, the internet was quick to troll her, and a few were sceptical, pointing out that Indian food and culture are often embraced in the West without always acknowledging their origins.
Gwyneth shared the cooking video – a part of her ongoing cooking series called #boyfriendbreakfast – with the caption, “Mint chutney eggs and savoury Indian chilla pancakes with last night's leftover short ribs.”
Gwyneth Paltrow cooks besan chilla
The actor's ‘savoury Indian chilla pancakes’ stayed fairly close to the classic batter used in Indian households. She used gram flour (besan) to which she added spices, water, chopped onions and tomato, and grated ginger. She cooked the chilla in a skillet pan with a little bit of oil. However, she gave the breakfast dish a twist by serving it with sunny-side up eggs drizzled with mint chutney and leftover short ribs with tomatoes.
Check out the video here:
How did the internet react?
The breakfast caught the internet's attention, and soon people were discussing the actor's breakfast, with the discourse ranging from her cooking to why Americans steal Indian culture and never give any credit.
{{/usCountry}}The breakfast caught the internet's attention, and soon people were discussing the actor's breakfast, with the discourse ranging from her cooking to why Americans steal Indian culture and never give any credit.
{{/usCountry}}A user on X (formerly Twitter) wrote, “Gwenyth Paltrow making besan cheelas and calling it ‘savoury chilla pancakes’ wasn’t on my bingo card. All of a sudden, chillas are a popular food.” Someone else commented, “Somebody get them a GI tag for Besan Chillas now…they’ll be claiming it soon anyway! I hope they don’t use Uncle Trump to ban Indians from making Chillas after that, like they tried to GI Tag our Basmati in 1997.”
One user wrote, “Americans will copyright it and then market it as their own,” while another simply stated, “White folks stealing Indian ‘knowledge’ and making money off the internet is the evolution of imperialism in the last 5 years.” Someone else noted, “Besan chillas with eggs? What a blasphemy.”
About Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth is an American award-winning actor. She made her film debut with a small part in Shout (1991), after which she appeared in a mixed bag of films, including Flesh and Bone (1993), Moonlight and Valentino (1995), and The Pallbearer (1996). It was her performance as Viola in Shakespeare in Love (1998), for which she was awarded the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role. She has two children with her former husband, English musician Chris Martin.