Sonia Gandhi Reveals Her Favourite Indian Dishes in Conversation With Priyanka Gandhi

A Taste for Indian Cooking

Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi has spoken about her affection for Indian food, describing how her relationship with the country’s cuisine evolved over the decades. In a freewheeling conversation with her daughter Priyanka Gandhi, she said she now enjoys a wide range of dishes, from Bengali and Gujarati fare to Kashmiri specialities.

Sonia Gandhi, who is of Italian descent, acknowledged that her early experience with Indian food was not easy. She initially found the strong smell of spices difficult to accept and said it took her time to grow comfortable with the cuisine. She also said she had not known how to cook when she first arrived in India and learned gradually.

Favourite Dishes

Asked about her current favourites, she listed kebabs, chicken tikka, tandoori chicken, dal makhni, Kashmiri kofta and haakh, a Kashmiri leafy green dish. She singled out dal chawal as her preferred meal. She also said that in her household, only arhar dal has been cooked since she arrived in the country.

She expressed particular admiration for Bengali food and said, surprisingly to some, that she loves Gujarati food from Surat. In a reminder of her cooking past, Priyanka recalled her mother making khandvi, a dish Sonia Gandhi described as very easy to prepare.

Memoir Context

The remarks came amid the release of Belonging: A Journey of Love, a memoir published by HarperCollins India. The book, scheduled for release on November 10, 2026, covers personal and public chapters of Sonia Gandhi’s life, including love, loss, family and her years in politics. The publisher has described it as an account of an extraordinary life and of a changing India.

In the conversation, Sonia Gandhi also spoke about food as part of her personal story, recalling that she first met Rajiv Gandhi while looking for a good meal. She said that over time India became familiar to her, one meal at a time.

Family Culinary Memories

Sonia Gandhi also recalled her mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi, who she said could not cook but had a keen sense of taste and an ability to suggest how a dish could be improved. Priyanka Gandhi’s remarks on the subject were part of the same discussion.

What Next

The memoir is set to be released on November 10, 2026, and is expected to draw further attention to the personal reflections Sonia Gandhi shares in its pages.