TRUST ME I KNOW WHAT I'm DOING

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I’m often reminded that a part of my own Marathi family found themselves feeling quite at home, welcomed into the culture of the American South, with all of its complexity and history.
A while ago, my uncle moved to Jackson MI for many years. We’d visit every now and then and over time we certainly noticed a growing Indian American community in the south. My grandmother actually spent her last few years living there, and even though her English was limited, she found a peaceful community there and even introduced my cousin and many of her non-Indian friends to some of her expert knitting techniques. In a way, the south found a way to embrace her style with comfort and made her feel at home. Now for chef and restaurateur, Meherwan Irani, he’s also found a home in the south and the south is finding a blossoming comfort and feeling quite at home with his food. Meherwan is from Ahmednagar in Maharashtra India, was born to a Punjabi mother and a Parsi father and then immigrated to the US when he was 20. After many jobs, and going to business school, Meherwan moved to the South with his wife Molly, where they soon found themselves in the thick of the great recession in 2009 in pursuit of a passion to open a restaurant. They quit their day jobs and started Chai Pani as a chaat house experience in Ashevillle NC. Today, with a growing number of restaurants across several southern US cities and a spice brand called Spicewalla, Meherwan has been changing the perception and creating a new experiential brand of Indian food in America. In 2018, Time Magazine named him as one of the 31 People Changing the South and last year, Chai Pani Asheville was named Outstanding Restaurant by the James Beard Foundation. Through a lot of respect to local community and history and a thoughtful merging of the food cultures of India and the American South, the growing restaurant and spice empire that Meherwan leads has been nurtured with a basic foundation of authenticity, approachability, and in a nutshell “soul”. We caught up for a conversation to talk about his very non-linear story, about cultivating success in the South, and even about his role in preparing food at the request of the Vice-President this past summer in Washington DC. But I wanted to first find out if at heart, Meherwan was a romantic when it comes to Indian street food?