Lucknow has just earned one of the most prestigious culinary honours in the world: it is now officially a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy. The city becomes only the second in India to hold this distinction — joining Hyderabad — and the timing could not be more symbolic. On World Cities Day, Lucknow’s centuries-old culinary heritage, refined etiquette, and intoxicating flavours were formally recognised on the global stage.
What Does It Mean to Be a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy?
Established in 2004, the UNESCO Creative Cities Network is a collective of cities that use culture and creativity as engines for sustainable development. These cities are selected across seven key fields — Crafts & Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Media Arts, and Music.
Today, the network spans over 400 cities, but only 69 of them carry the coveted label of City of Gastronomy. These are places where food is more than sustenance — it is identity, storytelling, memory, and living heritage. Lucknow now stands among them, and within Asia’s distinguished culinary capitals.
Must Read: Food Guide: What and Where to Eat in Lucknow
Why Lucknow’s food Culture Is UNESCO-Worthy
Because Lucknow is not merely a city — it is a slow, lingering experience.
It is the waft of saffron-laced biryani at dawn, the delicate fold of chikankari, and the refined elegance of tehzeeb, the culture of gracious hospitality.
Here, conversations are unhurried, flavours are layered with history, and a meal is not eaten — it is performed.
Lucknow’s culinary identity is rooted in Awadhi cuisine, shaped by the royal kitchens of the Nawabs. Awadhi food is patient. It simmers. It rests. It unfurls flavour one whisper at a time. The dum technique — slow-cooking food sealed under steam — is one of its greatest legacies.
Persian, Mughal, and regional Indian influences weave through each dish, yet the result remains distinctly, unmistakably Lucknawi.
Awadhi Cuisine: Where Every Bite Is a Story
To call Lucknow a “food city” feels almost too modest — this is a place where recipes are guarded, perfected, debated, and loved like family heirlooms. Whether you are vegetarian or carnivore, breakfast enthusiast or biryani purist, the city seduces each visitor differently.
A few icons that define its table:
Kebabs
The kebabs here are spoken of with the kind of reverence usually reserved for poetry.
From galouti and kakori to shami, boti, patili-ke-kebab, and classic seekh, the range is vast and deeply personal to the city’s identity. The magic is texture — melting softness balanced with quiet, confident spice.
Korma
Silky, aromatic, and unmistakably regal, the Awadhi korma is comfort food dressed in brocade. Each spoonful is slow-cooked opulence.
Nihari
A dish best understood at dawn. Meat simmered overnight until it collapses into tenderness — nihari is a reminder that patience might just be the most important ingredient of all.
Awadhi Biryani
Fragrant, harmonious, gentle — not fiery, but persuasive. Each grain is perfumed, deliberate, never rushed.
Tokri Chaat
A theatrical delight. A basket made of crispy grated potato cradling chickpeas, dahi, papdi, chutneys, spices — a riot of crunch, tang, sweetness, and heat. Royal Cafe is widely celebrated as its origin point.
And this is barely the start. The city is a maze of Sharma ji ki chai, family-run sweet shops, midnight kebab corners, and heritage eateries where recipes are older than the buildings they’re served in.
A City of History, Hospitality, and Quiet Grandeur
Lucknow is poetry in sandstone. From Bara Imambara to the bazaars of Aminabad, the city asks you to slow down — to walk, linger, taste, and listen. The tehzeeb is not just table etiquette — it is a worldview, a way of being.
UNESCO’s honour reflects the full spectrum of Lucknow’s culinary journey — from the refined dishes once perfected in royal kitchens, to the inventive flavours crafted at bustling street corners, to the work of contemporary chefs and cultural institutions who continue to preserve and reinterpret its traditions. It is this blend of legacy and living culture that has now earned Lucknow its rightful place on the global gastronomic stage.
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