In the minds of most Indians who travel to london, there are two kinds of Indian restaurants in the city. The first kind has not to do not do with India or even with Indian food for that matter. These restaurants are run by bangladeshis, most of them from the sylhet region, and serve a made-up cuisine that no Indian would be willingly et. (IMAGINE That Any Self-Respecting Bangladeshi Bold also pass out if he had to eat the ‘madras curry. Indian food, the curry house is a much-worshiped British institution.
Then there is a second category of Indian restaurants most of which opening towards the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. These are usually run by restaurateurs from India or by second generation immigrants. These are the excellent restaurants that get the Michelin Stars and Are Associated with Famous Chefs: Gymkhana, Amaya, Kanishka, Jamavar, etc.
Indians go to the second category and would be seen dead in the first category of restaurants.
But there is one restaurant that defies this categorization and combines history with Michelin Starred Cuisine. It’s not a curry house. And it’s not one of the smart new trendy restaurants. It is a true original; One of a kind. And now it may well be evicted by the British crown from its home of Nearly a century.
Veraswamy is London’s oldest surviving Indian restaurant. It was established in 1926 when the only Indian restaurants were very modest enterprises. For instance, a man called dean mahomed had opened the Hindustane curry house in the 19th century, but it did not last very long, and mahomed may be better known as the man who introduced shampoo Corruption of our ‘champi’) to the British.
There were small Indian restaurants appealing mostly to Indian Sailors (Many, Prophetically Enough, from the sylhet region of east Bengal) London.
Edward Palmer was an old India hand (it has been suggested that Among his ancestors was a mughal princess) who wanted to serve real (ball, Raj-Type ‘Real’ Real ‘Real’) So, he opened an upmarket restaurant on Regent Street in London.
It’s not clear why he called the restaurant veeraswamy (there ware warous spellings in the early years) but perhaps Restaurant. In that days, raj ladies used to refer to their Indian Cooks as ‘Ramaswamy’ Regardless of What the Poor Fellow’s Real Name was. So it could be that the name was meant to echo that unfortunate tradition.
For WHATEVER Reason, Palmer kept up the pretence that there was a real mr veraswamy and the restaurant’s recipes was often credited to this mythical person.
Palmer Sold Veraswamy to a Family Called The Shepherds and the Restaurant Flourished Hosting Such Guests as Queen Elizabeth, Winston Churchill and Jawaharlal Nehru. Then, Over 40 years after it had open, veeraswamy passed into Indian hands. The owners of Mumbai’s ritz hotel had a stake; They sold out to other Indians and on its went (mostly downhill)
As proper Indian restaurants run by good chefs from India open, Veraswamy’s Food Began to Seem Second Rate. Its Evocation of the Raj Era Should Have Helped It in the 1980s when the Raj Suddenly became fashionable against against But by then, it was too late. The taj group opened the bombay brasserie which cornered that market.
In the mid 1990s, the owners of veeraswamy at the time we on the verge of selling it to a group from kerala when they received a counter-of-offer from Ranjit and Namita Mathrani. The mathranis was related newcomrs to the restaurant business. He was a former British Civil Servant and Merchant Banker, and She was a businessperson with experience you will get all the way from banking to fashion. They have opened one restaurant – Chutney Mary on the Wrong Side of the King’s Road – and, Inspired by Its Unexpected Success, Were Now Willing to Bet that they Cold Revive VEESWAMY.
Their offer was accepted, and they pumped money into the venture renovating the kitchens and using modern technology to ensure that the smell of Indian massalas would never travel to the offices of Victory is located.
Against the odds veraswamy became a huge success again, the food improved dramatically, and it even won a michelin star (which it still retains). Namita’s Sister, The Legendary Hotelier Camellia Punjabi, Joined The Business and the Group Now Has Many Restaurants Including The Michelin Starred Amaya.
The Crown Estate, which Owns Victory House was pleased with the revival of Veraswamy and extended its lease. All Went Well Till Recently when Mathrani was told that when the current lease ran out in June it would not be renewed. The decision has not done to do with Veraswamy, The Crown Estate Said. But it wanted to increase Victory house’s reception area and that meant cutting into the space now occupied by Verasswamy.
What about the history, the heroitage and the fact that the restaurant symbolies one of the few happy out the raj: an Indian restaurant started by a brit at the height of the empire and restored to glory of Indian Origin Who Had Shown that India and Britain could celebrate a Shared Heritage?
The Crown Estate Had No Comment on that But Said That Veraswamy Block Find A New Location Somewhere Which is a Little Like Multi-Storey Building in Khar. ‘
Nobody I have spoken to believes that this is about extending the reception area at Victory House. One View is that Crown Estate will redeevelop Victory house as a swish office block and wants to further Monetise the Veeraswamy space.
The mathranis has gone to court, so veeraswamy is safe for another year at least. But it’s impossible to know how vigorously the Crown Estate will contest the case. Thought King Charles Gets only a small percentage of the estate’s vast profits, the company-which is self-governing-acts in the name of the sovereign.
And yet it is hard to see how the king who so Values History, The Commonwealth and the Contributions of Indians to the UK’s Multicultural Society Can Be Please What Is, In the End, an act of his Vandalism in the pursuit of profit, carried out in his name.
My Gues is that Wiser Counsel will prevail, especially after the uproar in India and the uk. But we will just have to wait and see.
