Once derided as ‘stinky’, Naga food now fuels entrepreneurship

Lohe belongs to the Chakesang tribe, one of the many ethnic groups that make up the Naga tribe spread across Nagaland, Manipur, and parts of Myanmar. The Nagas are furiously proud of their unique culinary tradition comprising diverse meats, foraged greens and an array of fermented condiments distinct from the rest of the country.

A month after quitting, in July 2017, Lohe launched Naga Pantry, a tiffin delivery service for “authentic” Naga food in the capital, based out of her small apartment in South Delhi’s Humayunpur.

Cut to 2024.

Naga Pantry is now an unassuming 16-seater eatery drawing scores of Delhiites every day. And Humayunpur is one of Delhi’s coolest food destinations, choc-a-block with small yet tastefully designed eateries serving food from across India’s northeast. But it is Naga food with as many as 10 eateries that headlines this Jat-dominated urban village’s hectic rise as a food destination in the last ten years among college students and young professionals who have had enough of the capital’s staple naan and butter chicken.

Once derided as “stinky” and “dirty” due to its pungent, fermented ingredients and use of diverse animal protein, Naga cuisine is stepping into the spotlight across the country. Gradually, Indians from other parts of the country have woken up to its delights, and young Nagas like Lohe are capitalizing on it to venture into entrepreneurship.

When Lohe left Nagaland in 2011, to find a job in the big city, she never thought she would “make a living out of selling Naga food.”

Lohe’s career trajectory encapsulates the story of the rise of Naga food. From Kohima to Guwahati, Kolkata to Delhi, and Bengaluru to Mumbai, Naga cloud kitchens and restaurants dot urban culinary landscapes.

“Food has emerged as a new site for Naga entrepreneurship,” said Dr. Bengt G. Karlsson, a professor of Anthropology at Stockholm University, who has extensively studied the northeastern migrant community in India. “A food that was earlier a stigma is now an exclusive ethnic cuisine.”

Conflict and Cuisine

Like Lohe, thousands of Nagas migrate to metros from their towns and villages, pushed away by a lack of job opportunities—the Periodic Labour Force Survey 2023-24 report pegs the rate of educated unemployed in Nagaland at 13.4 %, much higher than the national average of 7.1% — in a region marred by decades of volatile unrest. The Naga sovereignty struggle predates Indian independence, with Naga groups fighting the Indian state for “Nagalim,” an independent homeland for Naga ethnic people comprising areas across states in northeast India and parts of neighbouring Myanmar.

After decades of violence, the turn of the millennium brought a breakthrough of sorts: in 1997, the biggest and most influential Naga armed group, the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (IM), agreed to a ceasefire with the Indian state and has been engaged in peace talks with New Delhi ever since. However, violence and militarisation continued. This led many young Nagas, especially in the 1990s and early 2000s, to migrate to India’s metros to work in call centres, malls, restaurants, cafes, and beauty parlours.

Dolly Kikon, a US-based Naga anthropologist, explained, “Anywhere in the world, whenever there is a conflict, parents want their children to escape. In Nagaland, the 1990s was a very turbulent time, and outmigration rose rapidly,” said Dr Kikon, who teaches anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “These migrants would often carry their food along with them.”

In Nagaland, the 1990s was a very turbulent time, and outmigration rose rapidly.
-Dolly Kikon

While the early migrants were mostly engaged in the hospitality sector, academics say that many have now forayed into food entrepreneurship. It had its tentative beginnings in the mid-2000s, before booming in the last 5–7 years.

Diana Zhimomi moved to Delhi in 2004 to study, juggling multiple jobs including one at a call centre, before she opened Bamboo Hut in North Delhi’s Outram Lines in 2011, one of the capital’s first Naga restaurants. The motivation? “Nagas want their food wherever they go,” Zhimomi said, laughing.

Jepi Y. Chisho, a Delhi-based Naga advocate and student leader, agreed. He has lived in Delhi for close to a decade now, but always finds himself coming back to “proper Naga food.” “It reminds me of home,” he said, “For us Nagas, it is very difficult to move beyond it.”

But Naga cuisine—where fermented ingredients are key —is often at odds with the mainland Indian palate. Key ingredients like axone, a fermented soybean condiment (also spelled ‘akhuni’), is full of flavour, but comes with a distinct smell that can be overwhelming for the unaccustomed nose. Often, cooking with it would lead to unsavoury run-ins with landlords in big cities.

In the early days, Zhimomi recalls resorting to lighting agarbattis in her restaurant to deal with irate neighbours. “People were suspicious. Some would barge into the restaurant, complain about the smell, and threaten to call the cops,” she said.

However, as migration continued, northeastern migrant pockets emerged in cities, like Humayunpur and Kishangarh in Delhi, Ejipura in Bengaluru, and Kalina in Mumbai. These neighbourhoods gave migrants like Jepi, Vilou and Lohe the chance to cook and eat their own food among familiar faces in relative peace.

Delhi alone has about 40 Naga food businesses (including restaurants, cloud kitchens and delivery services), Bengaluru about 15, and Mumbai at least 5.

The more enterprising Nagas began to see a market opportunity, and what started as a way for migrants to ease their homesickness and build a sense of belonging in an unfamiliar land soon evolved into an opportunity for entrepreneurship.

In 2015, Khevito Elvis Lee, who earlier worked in hotels across the country, opened the first Naga restaurant in Humayunpur. “Back then, there were only a couple of restaurants and a stall in Dilli Haat,” he said. Sensing the vacuum, Elvis opened his restaurant to serve “affordable and homely food” to an ever-growing demographic of north-eastern students and working professionals. Now within 200 metres of Hornbill, there are at least five Naga restaurants. Delhi alone has about 40 Naga food businesses (including restaurants, cloud kitchens and delivery services), Bengaluru about 15, and Mumbai at least five.

Yummy and Healthy

The popularity of Naga cuisine, many say, is a function of changing attitudes and willingness to experiment.

Elvis credited his north-eastern clientele, who would “bring their mainland friends” to introduce them to Naga food. Added Zhimomi: “People are more adventurous and accepting of other people’s diets.”

Social media has also played a role. Over the years, a new crop of food bloggers have emerged, who use platforms like Instagram to showcase their indigenous food in their homes. Germany-based Naga chef and entrepreneur Athan Zimik is among them. His Instagram handle is a repository of little-known facts about not just Naga food, but the Naga way of life. Moreover, Zimik added, culinary methods like fermentation now have an interest globally. “There are health benefits too. Contrary to popular belief, Naga food is not just about meat—it features an abundance of greens. The meats are boiled, steamed, or smoked, making it a zero-oil cuisine,” he said.

Technology and the burgeoning rise of food delivery apps have helped too.

In Bengaluru, Amy Ozukum, a Naga software engineer, recalls the sudden burst of places serving Naga food a year into the lockdown. “In some areas, people would just create WhatsApp groups and start taking orders.”

For young migrants, it was an easy investment. In Mumbai, childhood friends Zhuvikai Assumi and Watirenla Longkumer opened Naga Belly, and in Delhi, K. Khumba started Lu’s Kitchen—both delivery services that required little capital.

Khumba invested about ₹50,000, and started her business “right out of her kitchen.” “All I had to spend on was my GST, FSSAI license, packaging material, and of course, the ingredients,” she said. The plethora of “northeast shops” selling fresh vegetables and ingredients from the region that have emerged in their respective cities came in handy.

Some like Lohe, spent even less: a couple of thousands on her home delivery service. Her restaurant, of course, required more investment. “I spent about ₹7 lakh, but broke even in eight months or so,” she said.

The 35-year old had a simpler and straightforward explanation for the Naga food’s moment in the sun: “Naga food is simply delicious.”

The Naga Masterchef

Many across India seem to agree.

In 2014, a Bengaluru café hosted one of the city’s first northeastern food pop-ups. “We expected maybe a few northeastern students to turn up,” said chef Aketoli Zhimomi, who was flown down from Dimapur by the organisers for the event. But the week-long festival drew long queues of people from across the city.

Since then, Zhimomi has hosted many pop-ups in different parts of the country, was part of the team that introduced the Naga Special menu at ITC Royal Bengal in Kolkata (complete with Naga starters and desserts), and is now the proprietor of Ethnic Table, one of the most popular Naga restaurants in Dimapur.

Zhimomi was always passionate about food, but she credits her rise as an entrepreneur to a local culinary competition in Nagaland. Launched in 2013 and modelled on MasterChef Australia, ‘Naga Chef’ was envisioned by Nagaland’s current chief minister, Neiphiu Rio, as a platform for entrepreneurial chefs to showcase Naga food to the world.

Organized by Synergy in partnership with the state government, Naga Chef is serious business. Participants go through several challenging rounds crafting innovative dishes using traditional ingredients, before the top four finalists manage food stalls at the Hornbill Festival each December. “We don’t want them to be just chefs, but successful entrepreneurs too,” said Alezo Kense, who has spearheaded the competition since its inception. The dividends have been rich: winners have started their own restaurants, catering businesses, and even published cookbooks.

“What the competition did was make Naga food seem respectable and fashionable, giving it a marketable identity as an exotic indigenous cuisine,” said Kallol Dey, a journalist based in Dimapur. The competition, he argued, catalysed a “generational transition”—from parents and grandparents cooking in traditional hearths to young chefs whipping up dishes in fancy kitchens.

Our Culture, Our Brand

Young Nagas choosing to make a living by cooking and serving the food they grew up eating back home is more than them just riding the culinary wave in India. The entrepreneurial spirit is often coupled with a deep sense of pride in their culture and identity. All restaurants are decorated with cultural motifs from back home. The walls of Lohe’s Naga Pantry are adorned with sprigs of dried corn and woven basketry. “The decor has to have a Naga touch, even the plates—it is important we display our culture,” said Lohe, who serves her food on indigenous wooden “stand plates”.

Khumba, a Naga woman from Manipur who runs Lu’s Kitchen in Delhi, agreed. She has a one-dish menu of rice and pork curry with heimang (wild varnish) , a medicinal wild fruit found in Manipur. “I wanted to give people a taste of our world,” she said.

For Naga Belly founders, their venture has let them live the “dream to bring Naga cuisine to the world.” Assumi said: “Initially, we hesitated to even offer our food, let alone consider selling it. We were skeptical about even cooking our food in front of others. However, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that people were more adventurous than we had imagined.”

The Naga sovereignty struggle has been the longest and most violent one. family members killed, disappeared, women raped, men tortured.
-Dr Karlsson

Dr Karlsson traces this sense of pride to the state’s deeply troubled past, where lives have been routinely animated by violence and conflict.

“The Naga sovereignty struggle has been the longest and most violent one. family members killed, disappeared, women raped, men tortured,” he said, adding that “this violence had also found its way into the domestic space.”

Food, he notes, has played a central role in this process of healing. “Growing traditional food crops, cooking your own dishes, sharing meals have become critical acts of healing,” he said.

Moreover, said Dr Kikon, younger Nagas remain committed to their struggle for sovereignty—not through armed or political means, but by asserting their cultural identity and “engaging deeply with their land, heritage, and history”. “Food is a manifestation of that,” she said. “In the 1990s, if it was human rights that got Nagas together, in the 2000s it is food that is making a new pathway for us to come together.”

Tora Agarwala is an independent journalist covering India’s Northeast.