LUCKNOW: Lucknow is many things to many people. To food lovers across India and beyond it is one thing above all the city of the kebab. The Tunday kebab made with over 160 spices. The melt-in-the-mouth Galouti, the slow-simmered nihari, the fragrant Awadhi biryani developed in the courts of the Nawabs over two centuries. These dishes did not emerge from a recipe book. They emerged from a civilisation.
None of them appear on the Uttar Pradesh government’s newly notified One District One Cuisine list.
What the Scheme Is
The One District One Cuisine initiative(ODOC) launched by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on January 24 2026 during Uttar Pradesh Day celebrations in Lucknow. The state cabinet formally approved it on May 4 2026 and the district-wise list of 208 food items was notified around May 6. The scheme selects one signature food item per district and directs government support toward its branding packaging market access and GI tagging. A budget of ₹150 crore backs the initiative.
The flagship items cited by the government include Meerut’s revdi and gajak, Hathras’s khurchan, Prayagraj’s kachori and rasmalai, Jaunpur’s imarti and Lucknow’s malai makkhan and chaat. These are genuine culinary treasures they are also all vegetarian. Across 75 districts and 208 items the list contains not a single non-vegetarian preparation.
What Did Not Make the Cut
Lucknow’s Tunday kebab originated in 1905. A one-armed chef created it for a nawab with failing teeth using minced mutton and a spice blend of over 160 ingredients. The Galouti kebab another Awadhi invention is equally absent. So is Awadhi biryani developed in the 18th and 19th century Lucknow courts through the technique of dum pukht. Nihari the slow-simmered shank stew that Lucknow’s old city has eaten for generations finds no mention.
Food experts and chefs have questioned the exclusion noting that the initiative features 208 dishes intended to promote local culinary heritage but has drawn criticism for overlooking meat-based traditions that many argue are central to the state’s cultural and historical fabric.
Rampur’s mutton korma and seekh kebabs are celebrated nationally. The Kakori kebab a minced meat preparation originating at Kakori village near Lucknow in the early 1900s and considered a hallmark of Awadhi identity finds no place. Bareilly’s mutton preparations are similarly absent.
The Expert Verdict
Pushpesh Pant, President of the Cuisine Society of India and one of India’s most respected food historians, described the all-vegetarian ODOC list as a half baked measure. Pant called the approach reflective of a biased outlook and described it as selective discrimination against a significant part of UP’s culinary heritage.
The government’s response came from Cabinet Minister Rakesh Sachan“It is not intentional. If recommended in the future they can be added. The idea is not to promote individual popular items but dishes that benefit a larger population through packaging sales and promotion.”
That response raises more questions than it answers. Lucknow’s Tunday kebab establishment has operated for over a century, it employs dozens of people. It draws food tourists from across India and abroad. The argument that ODOC targets mass-benefit foods does not explain why Meerut’s revdi qualifies and Lucknow’s kebab does not.
The Economic Cost
The ODOC scheme’s stated purpose is economic jobs exports branding and market access. The precedent from GI tagging of non-vegetarian dishes elsewhere in India is instructive here. Hyderabadi haleem received a GI tag in 2010 the first meat product in India to do so. The tag produced a documented 20 to 30% premium in sales and significantly boosted export value. Awadhi biryani and Lucknow’s kebabs have no GI tag. ODOC was an opportunity to begin that process.
Several celebrated non-vegetarian dishes closely associated with Uttar Pradesh’s culinary identity have not found a place on the list. According to NFHS-5 data approximately 40% of UP’s population consumes non-vegetarian food. Muslims constitute approximately 19% of the state’s population according to the 2011 Census and are historically central to the Awadhi and Nawabi culinary traditions the ODOC list has set aside. The meat and poultry sector employs a significant number of people across the state from kebab makers to biryani establishments though precise recent government figures are unavailable.
What Other States Do
Kerala promotes its seafood and meat heritage through culinary tourism initiatives that treat food diversity as an economic asset. Rajasthan actively promotes laal maas in its tourism literature. Neither state has found it necessary to choose between its vegetarian and non-vegetarian heritage when building a culinary identity for external markets.
A genuinely representative ODOC list would include Lucknow’s Galouti and Tunday kebabs under Lucknow district. Rampur would carry its mutton korma and seekh kebabs, Bareilly its mutton kahari. The Kakori kebab would appear under Lucknow. Varanasi and Prayagraj both associated with distinctive river fish preparations would carry those traditions. The list would reflect what UP actually eats rather than what a particular policy moment prefers it to eat.
The Open Question
For a state that gave the world the delicate Galouti of Lucknow and the fragrant biryani of Moradabad this oversight is less like a selection and more like a dietary redirectionpresenting a sanitised one-dimensional portrait of a multi-layered palate.
The government has not explained why non-vegetarian dishes were excluded. Minister Sachan’s statement that additions can come later remains the only official position. A scheme designed to preserve UP’s culinary heritage cannot do that job if it excludes half of what UP actually eats. The tiranga barfi of Varanasi and the peda of Mathura are genuine treasures, so is the Galouti kebab. A state of 24 crore people deserves a food policy as large as its appetite.
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