New Delhi, April 26 -- A century-old dinner menu, dated 31 January 1897, from Vadodara's Laxmi Vilas Palace, caused a stir when Gurugram-based food historian Neha Vermani shared it online in February. The menu was for a dinner hosted by Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III of Baroda for Maharaja Madhavrao Scindia of Gwalior, two of the most powerful kings in colonial India. And yet, what they ate that evening reads like something from a European dining room: potage d'amandes, braised fish with mayonnaise, chicken cream soup with truffles, lamb cutlets "al'Italienne", roast partridge with peas. A vegetable curry with rice makes an appearance, but almost quietly, folded into a sequence of French courses. Dessert was apples with cream and pistachi...