Why Haute Indian Cuisine Struggles to Find a Home

“It seems Bill Clinton went to an Indian restaurant to celebrate Chelsea’s birthday,” my mom announced. 

I rolled my eyes. But I was impressed.

It was the ’90s. He was the president. I was a kid growing up in Colorado. And the fact that a wealthy, powerful white man actually liked Indian food felt like a personal compliment. In retrospect, it was another instance of a white person functioning as an arbiter of taste—albeit...