{
  "id": 5886729,
  "title": "‘Millets Are Good For The Planet, Farmer And Consumer’: Celebrated Chef Anahita Dhondy On The Power Of Grains",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/06/millets-are-good-for-the-planet-farmer-and-consumer-celebrated-chef",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-09-06T01:55:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Free Press Journal",
    "slug": "free-press-journal",
    "url": "https://www.freepressjournal.in/lifestyle/millets-are-good-for-the-planet-farmer-and-consumer-celebrated-chef-anahita-dhondy-on-the-power-of-grains"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Celebrated chef Anahita Dhondy has recently released her new book, The Grain Kitchen, which focuses on the power of grains in promoting sustainability, nutrition, and culinary versatility. In an interview, she shared her journey with grains and her efforts to popularize them.\n\nAnahita discovered the nutritional benefits and versatility of grains, particularly millets, while working at SodaBottleOpenerWala in 2014-15. She felt these grains deserved more attention due to their numerous advantages, such as being locally grown, nutritious, and delicious.\n\nIn 2018, Anahita spoke about millets at the United Nations, which helped bring them to the forefront internationally. She is proud of the FAO's declaration of 2023 as the Year of Millet, as it helps raise awareness about these grains' potential.\n\nDuring her research, Anahita was fascinated by the various types of millets and pseudograins, their textures, cultivation methods, and cooking techniques. She aimed to create a book that would appeal to a diverse audience, offering Indian and international recipes using grains in various forms.\n\nAnahita acknowledges the strong marketing surrounding quinoa and avocados but emphasizes the importance of promoting millets, as they are indigenous to India. She acknowledges that it takes time for people to adapt to new grains in their diet, but she encourages experimenting with different grains, such as millets, oats, corn, and barley.\n\nCommon misconceptions about grains, like them being fattening due to their carbohydrate content, are debunked by Anahita, who stresses that grains are an essential part of a balanced diet. Her ultimate goal with The Grain Kitchen is to encourage people to explore and enjoy the delicious, versatile, and sustainable nature of grains.",
  "summary": "Back in 2015, when she started using grains in her kitchen, celebrated chef and sustainability advocate Anahita Dhondy knew it was something she wanted to talk about and promote. Post her first book The Parsi Kitchen which was all about community and celebrating childhood memories, she is back with a new book – The Grain Kitchen. “Understanding and incorporating a wider variety of grains into our…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}