The only experience more quintessentially Indian than travelling on the country’s vast rail network is to eat the food served on the trains. The variety of landscapes seen from the windows – from Himalayan vistas to the shimmering sands of the Rajasthani deserts – is matched only by the variation in quality of the idlis, dal and biryani served in the carriages.

But now all that is changing. The Indian Railways have enlisted the Bangalore-based Institute of Hotel Management to compile a recipe book for standardised train menus.