Topic: History

[tempest63]

I found this. God only knows where I got it from.

The history of Indian food in Britain is now almost four hundred years old
and not only has the cuisine undergone a great change in the United Kingdom
but also in its native land. Apart from the reports of occasional explorers,
the story really starts with the arrival in Surat of the English merchants
of the East India Company in 1608 and then again and more successfully in
1612.
Soon lascars - seamen, mainly from Bengal - were helping to man British
ships and despite The Navigation Act of 1660 stating that 75% of the crew of
a British ship had to be British, a number began appearing in London
throughout the century.
By 1804 the number of lascars in London was quoted as 471 and yet by 1810 it
had risen to over 1400, around 130 of which would die each year such was the
poor condition of their circumstances. Concern about their plight led to the
creation of The Society for the Protection of Asiatic Sailors in 1814 and in
1869 complaint was made to the India Office in London that there were
upwards of 400 destitute Asians on the streets.
As the influence of the British in India grew, so did the interest in Indian
food back in Britain, leading to the publishing of recipes and the
commercial creation of curry powder in 1780. The first appearance of curry
on a menu was at the Coffee House in Norris Street, Haymarket, London in
1773 but the first establishment dedicated to the cuisine was the
Hindostanee Coffee House at 34 George Street, Portman Square, London in 1809
as recorded in The Epicure's Almanack.
Lascar desertion continued to be a big problem with many ending up on the
streets whilst others became entertainers or sold herbs and spices as did th
e famous Dr Bokanby who sold herbs in London's Petticoat Lane in 1861.
As the nineteenth century dawned, the only eating establishments offering
Indian cuisine were community meeting places for those who had jumped ship
in London looking for a new life or, more often, been put ashore without any
means of support. Some of these were Vandary (Indian chefs) who jumped ship
to seek work in London's growing restaurant community but not enough to
provide any real impetus for the cuisine.
The first recorded Indian restaurant of the twentieth century was the Salut
e Hind in Holborn in 1911 but the first to have any real influence was The
Shafi opened by Mohammed Wayseem and Mohammed Rahim in 1920. Coming from
North India they opened their cafe in London's Gerard Street (now the centre
of London's Chinatown) and employed four or five ex seamen. It soon became a
kind of community and Indian Student Centre. Indian students in the UK rose
from 100 in 1880 to 1800 by 1931.
Soon The Shafi was taken over by Dharam Lal Bodua and run by an English
manager with employees such as Israil Miah and Gofur Miah who were later to
run their own establishments. One of Dharam's great friends was Bir Bahadur
from Delhi who opened The Kohinoor in Roper Street (pulled down in 1978) and
was to have a major influence on the industry.
These restaurants were, not surprisingly, mainly for Asians but in 1927 the
first fashionable Indian restaurant opened when Edward Palmer opened
Veeraswamy's Indian Restaurant in London's Regent Street where it still
thrives today owned by Ranjit Mathrani and Namita Panjabi. Edward Palmer had
been greatly encouraged by friends and acquaintances after his successful
running of the Mughal Palace in The Empire Exhibition at Wembley a few years
before and he brought staff from India and created a traditional atmosphere
such that it became called "The ex-Indian higher serviceman's curry club".
Many of the people from all over India who were later to become the backbone
of the new 'curry' restaurant industry, learned their trade at The
Veeraswamy.
Meanwhile Sordar and Shomsor Bahadur had come from India to join their
brother and opened The Taj Mahal, Brighton ; Taj Mahal, Oxford ; Taj Mahal
Northampton ; Kohinoor, Cambridge ; Kohinoor, Manchester all before the
outbreak of the Second World War and mainly staffed by ex-seamen.
Other establishments for the seamen, usually from the province of Sylhet,
opened throughout the years between the wars, such as Abdul Rashim and Koni
Khan's coffee shop serving curry and rice on Victoria Dock Road around 1920.
Gradually the development of Indian restaurants spread outwards from London
between the two Great Wars and many of the restaurants that have influenced
those established today were created. Amongst those in London pre 1939 were
The Durbar on Percy Street owned by Asuk Mukerjee from Calcutta, and his
compatriot from the same city Nogandro Goush who owned The Dilkush in
Windmill Street. Asif Khan from Punjab had The Shalimar on Wardour Street
and Jobbul Haque of Urrishi owned The Bengal India on Percy Street.
Abdul Gofur opened a cafe shop at 120 Brick Lane as well as others in New
Road and Commercial Road and Ayub Ali Master came back from America in 1938
and opened Shah Jalal on Commercial Street London. Shirref's in Great Castle
Street opened in 1935 and Halal, which still thrives today, opened in St
Marks Street E1 in 1939.
Such was the influence of the Bahadur family that it was estimated that
nearly all first generation East Pakistani, or what was to become
Bangladeshi, restaurateurs learned their trade from the Bahadur brothers.
Many cafes opened up around the seaports of Britain by ex seamen but they
had great difficulty in obtaining the necessary rice and spices. During the
Second World War the social focus shifted to The Gathor, a basement cafe at
36 Percy Street, London but soon after Sanu Miah opened The Green Mask on
Brompton Road, which became a centre for prominent East Pakistani's and
their politicians. Also in 1942-3 Mosrof Ali and Israil Miah opened The
Anglo Asian at 146 Brompton Road, London and by 1957 Mosrof Ali also had The
Durbar in Hareford Road. His last business was The Curry Garden Indian in
1975 before retiring in 1979.
The 1950s saw a great influx of Punjabis in the Southall area due to the
specialised employment policy of Woolf's Rubber Factory whose executive had
personal experience of the excellence of Punjabi staff and Bengalis
continued to settle around the Tower Hamlets area.
Until 1962 members of the Commonwealth were allowed to enter Britain freely
but even thereafter many Asians came from Africa and a bigger group came
from Kenya in 1968.
The fifties and sixties saw a rapid growth in Indian restaurant numbers in
Britain, especially London and the South East, where over 45% of Indian
restaurants are still located.
Gradually the Indian restaurant concept spread all over Britain, even though
those running the restaurants were often not Indian at all. Until
Bangladeshi Independence in 1971 at least three quarters of 'Indian'
restaurants in Britain were Pakistani owned. After 1971, the geographical
differences became clear, with over half the restaurants owned and managed
by Bangladeshis, most of whom were from the one area of Sylhet. Once you
reach Birmingham, however, the situation changes with the number of
Bangladeshis decreasing and Pakistanis increasing. By the time you reach
Bradford and Manchester, the restaurateurs are almost entirely Pakistani ,
Kashmiri and North Indian and once you reach Glasgow the concentration is
almost entirly Punjabi as it is in the Southall, Wembley region of London.
In Birmingham Abdul Aziz opened a cafe shop selling curry and rice in
Steelhouse Lane in 1945 which became The Darjeeling, the first Indian in
Birmingham, owned by Afrose Miah. The second was The Shah Bag on Bristol
Street and the growth really got underway in the 1950's. The Aloka opened on
Bristol Street in 1960 and Banu on Hagley Road in 1969.
Manchester started with the Bahadur brother's Kohinoor in Oxford Street
followed by Malik Bokth with The Everest, Nojir Uddin who opened Monzil and
Lal Miah who opened The Orient. Rajdoot, long a favourite in Manchester,
opened in 1966. Malik Miah Guri, manager at The Kohinoor, moved to
Birmingham and opened The Shalimar at Dale End.
In Bradford,The Sweet Centre on Lumb Lane which opened in 1964 was one of
the earliest after The Kashmir in Morley Street in 1958. When the owner of
The Shafi, Mr Dharan died in 1963, Ahmed Kutub, who worked there, went to
open his own restaurant in Newcastle and in the 1950s Rashid Ali moved from
a cafe shop in London's Drummond Street to Cardiff to open his own
establishment. The first restaurant to open in the north was The Anglo Asian
on Ocean Road, South Shields run by Syed Lukman Ali.
North of the border, the first record is of a restaurant opened in Glasgow
by Dr Deb from Nawakhali before 1939 and since that time the management
staff in most existing restaurants seem to have developed from just two
original Punjabi style establishments giving rise to a great similarity of
menu.
In the sixties and seventies, owners began to make serious monies from the
industry, with people such as Rajiv Ali, now Chairman of the South East Bank
in Bangladesh having found his fortune with a curry house on Whitechapel
Road E1. Haji Abdul Razzah came to Britain with an early wave of immigrants
and lived in Kentish Town in 1960. He returned to Bangladesh in 1985 and now
owns The Polash Hotel in Sylhet having made his fortune from 'chicken tikka
masala'.
The three main influences on the growth of Indian restaurants were firstly
the growing affluence and cosmopolitan nature of the British public and
secondly the introduction of the tandoor in the sixties.
The tandoor came, originally from the Middle East with the name deriving
from the Babylonian word 'tinuru' meaning fire. Hebrew and Arabic then made
it tannur then tandur in Turkey, Central Asia and, finally Pakistan and
India, who made it famous worldwide. The first tandoor in India in a
restaurant is said to have been in the Kashmiri Moti Mahal in New Delhi in
1948 and several restaurants have claimed to be the first to have a tandoor
in Britain. Initial research suggested the man responsible was, in fact,
Mahendra Kaul who started the excellent Gaylord group and it was The Gaylord
in Mortimer Street who advertised it in a Palladium Theatre programme in
1966. Mr Kaul had taken the tandoor to America for the Worlds Fair in 1964
then loaned it and his staff to a restaurant in Whitfield Street, London
that no longer exists, before starting the Gaylord. He is still a partner in
Chor Bizarre in London making him one of the most experienced people still
working in the industry. Recently viewed archived documents at Veeraswamy
indicate, however, a tandoor in use much earlier, in 1959 and so, this
famous restaurant seems to have been responsible for the earliest
introduction of tandoori style dishes to the UK, although it would be some
ten years and more before the tandoor became widely used in Britain. If you
had visited Veerawamy's, as it was then called, in December 1959 you could
have enjoyed Chicken Tandoori (allow 15-20 minutes) for the princely sum of
ten shillings and sixpence. The first evidence of a tandoor in Glasgow is
not until 1978 but is likely to have been some years earlier.
The other major influence was the continued growth of immigration to provide
the people to staff the growing number of Indian restaurants. 360,000
Bangladeshis are forecast for the year 2050.
In 1960 there were just 500 Indian restaurants in Britain but by 1970 this
had grown to 1200. With the influx after Bangladesh Independence numbers
grew rapidly to 3000 in 1980 and by 2000 there were almost 8000 Indian
restaurants in Britain turning over more than ?2 billion a year employing
some 70,000 people as one of the major industries in the country. Chicken
Tikka Masala, a British-Bangladeshi creation predating the relatively
short-lived balti craze has become so popular that it is available in a wide
variety of forms ranging from crisps to pies and statistics show that 14.6%
of all first choices in restaurants are for the dish which has no real
recipe and can vary from hot to creamy and red to green.
The first to claim its invention are descendents of Sultan Ahmed Ansari who
owned The Taj Mahal in Glasgow in 1950's but it is also claimed by Ali Ahmed
Aslam who took over the restaurant from him and called it Shish Mahal circa
1970. Sheikh Abdul Khalique from Essex also claimed the creation of CTM as
it was nicknamed by Colleen Grove in Spice-n-Easy Magazine in 1994, as have
half a dozen other chefs and, according to folklore, it came about when
gravy loving Brits wanted a sauce with their Chicken Tikka and Condensed
Tomato Soup with added spices was used on the spur of the moment in a flash
of commercially motivated creation.
In 1982, Taj International Hotels flew in the face of advice and opened The
Bombay Brasserie in Courtfield Road SW7 under Adi Modi and changed the
entire Indian restaurant scene once again by setting a new benchmark for
quality.
Many of the previous owners and chefs had learned their trade 'hands on' but
now a new class of chef was to appear backed by years of training in Taj and
Oberoi management colleges. Soon London boasted several top class
establishments such as Namita Panjabi's Chutney Mary, Amin Ali's The Red
Fort, Tamarind, La Port des Indes, Cafe Lazeez, Cyrus Todiwala's Cafe Spice
Namaste, Chor Bizarre, Andy Varma's Vama and more recently, Zaika and
Quilon. Enam Ali of Le Raj has set a standard for Bangaldeshi restaurants as
well as being one of the founder members of The Guild of Bangladeshi
Restaurateurs, created to serve the community alongside the Bangladesh
Caterers Association first started in 1960.
In 1984 Pat Chapman created The Curry Club and Good Curry Guide to publicise
the cuisine and bring pressure to bear on supermarkets to stock both
ingredients and chilled/frozen meals and was followed by The Real Curry
Restaurant Guide in 1988/9 which today covers over 6000 Indian restaurants.
Entrepreneurs such as Kirit and Meena Pathak of Pataks, G.K. Noon of Noon
Products and Perween Warsi of S&A Foods identified the gaps in the retail
market accompanied by rice brands Tilda, Veetee and Westmill and Indian
lagers Kingfisher, Cobra and Lal Toofan such that the Indian food sector is
now seen as one of the fastest growing food and drink sectors in Britain.
More chapters of the story are yet to unfold as the cuisine moves upmarket,
establishments become ever more refined, chefs become more adventurous and
demand continues to grow.

[Graeme]

  thank you, thats alot to digest :-)

[artistpaul]

thank you

[Panpot]

Thanks, a lot to swallow like a Glasgow Nan. I trust you were able to cut and paste otherwise you deserve an award from us all Tempest

[Peripatetic Phil]

Ah, what memories this brings back.  First of all, my first and only visit to "Veeraswamy's Indian Restaurant in London's Regent Street", where the turbanned Sikh on the door and the punkha wallah who kept us cool and aerated during the meal did much to add to the ambience.  Sadly all went belly-up when the bill was presented and we read the unforgettable words "For your convenience, a service charge of XX% has been added to the bill; however, please do not let this deter you from leaving a gratuity : may we suggest YY% ?". 

The other memory was inspired by the words "loaned [the tandoor] and his staff to a restaurant in Whitfield Street, London".  I wonder if this was the Agra, where I first tasted tandoori chicken on which I then became completely hooked, returning every weekend to eat yet another portion of this superb and previously unknown dish.  After eating there perhaps a dozen times, my girlfriend Kirsty & I decided to try somewhere else, so went to (I think) somewhere in nearby Tottenham Street.  It was a total disaster.  We were reasonably certain that they had no tandoor and had to send out for the meal, which when it finally arrived was dry, tasteless and a travesty of the real thing.  After that, we went back to the Agra and never went anywhere else again !  Oddly the management in the Agra were not all that helpful, and we regularly had to argue with them to get chapatti with the tandoori chicken rather than the naan they wanted to serve.  I can only assume that this was because our meal would then have needed two chefs rather than one, but since we invariably had mushroom bhaji and pilau rice as well, I can't really see what the problem was.

All this took place during the period 1966--1970.  Happy days !