The British Raj has been a long time dying.  One vestige – the restaurant Veeraswamy – established a hundred years ago in London’s Regent Street, is threatened with closure.

Before 1947, visiting Indian aristocracy patronised it. it catered also for ‘India-returns’ – a sentimental breed of white Britishers who wished to recall imperial aromas. The restaurant claims the abstemious Mahatma Gandhi as a client. That is implausible. In 1931, when Gandhi travelled to London to attend the Round Table Conference, he took two goats with him to provide him fresh milk.  It is unlikely his goat would have been carried to Veeraswamy’s first floor restaurant. [It was such dietary obsessions that caused Gandhi’s acolyte Sarojini Naidu to complain: ‘It costs a lot of money to keep this man in poverty.’]

Pre-1947, Veeraswamy’s menu offered ‘Madras chicken curry and khurgosh ka salan (rabbit curry)’. Many have forgotten that war-time Britain survived on rabbit meat until, in the 1950s, the myxomatosis epidemic destroyed rabbits as a source of protein.

By 1952, as migration from the subcontinent to the U.K. increased, the menu adapted to a more discerning demand. It advertised: chicken korma, chicken vindaloo, tika kabab, and poppadums (or papads).

In those days, few subcontinental students could afford to eat at Veeraswamy’s. They resorted instead to sprinkling Bolst’s curry powder over their braised beef. They tended to eat at cheaper restaurants in and around Warren Street. For reasons of economy, cooks used the same curry base for every dish – whether meat or vegetables or dal - with the result that every dish looked and tasted the same.  [Racists once spread a rumour that Indian restaurants curried tinned cat food instead of fresh meat.]

The property in Regent’s Street presently occupied by Veeraswamy is owned by Crown Estate. To forestall eviction, the present lessees are planning an appeal to King Charles III, reinforced with a demonstration outside Buckingham Palace. They complain of  ’cultural vandalism’.

They could also remind him that curries and his Royal Family have a long association, starting from the reign of his great-great-great grandmother Queen-Empress Victoria.

Shrabani Basu, in her fascinating book Victoria & Abdul (2010), describes how Queen Victoria’s Indian Munshi Abdul Karim prepared dishes for her: chicken curry, daal and pilaus, improving later to exotic biryanis and dumpukht. The Queen described them as ‘excellent’. One reason for their appeal may have been Abdul Karim’s insistence on grinding the raw spices himself, rather than using imported curry powder.  

Curries prepared by her Indian servants were served to her and her guests almost every day, but only at lunch, never at dinner. Another author Annie Gray, in her book The Greedy Queen (2017), mentions that ‘long before Karim, curry de poulet appeared on the dinner menu at Windsor Castle on December 29, 1847.’

Her son Edward VII loathed Munshi Abdul Karim with a vehemence he reserved for his mother’s earlier favourite – the Scottish ghillie John Brown. Edward’s eating preferences were European. A typical breakfast for him included fried sole, haddock, bacon, poached eggs, lamb cutlets, devilled chicken, and roast woodcock on toast. [Lahori breakfasts can be as heavy.]

Curries returned to the royal table with his son King-Emperor George V. He was partial to Madras prawn curry, a taste he acquired probably during his visit to India in 1905-6. His granddaughter the late Queen Elizabeth II enjoyed the occasional curry, provided it was mild. Her husband Prince Philip liked his indulgences spicier. In 1953, to mark her crowning, the royal kitchen created a dish called Coronation Chicken, a curry  tempered with fresh cream.

Western sommeliers or wine tasters avoid curries. They fear that their palates might get damaged.  Other westerners find it difficult to handle our local specialities. For instance, Lady Margaret Thatcher, on a visit to Lahore in 1996, was once served a perfectly rounded fried puri. She frowned, and then asked imperiously : ‘What do I do with it?’ Her host replied: ‘Deal with it as you did the Labour trade unions. Puncture it with a knife!’  

Today, the U. K. has about 8,000 ‘Indian’ restaurants. Over 75% of them are owned or managed by Bangladeshis. London alone has 3,600 – more than Mumbai and Delhi combined. Soon, chicken tikka masala – two chefs both from Glasgow claim to have invented it - will soon replace fish and chips as Britain’s favourite takeaway dish.

Despite their excellence, no desi restaurant has received a Michelin three star rating. Two restaurants in the U.K. have got a two star rating.  Only four (including Veeraswamy) were awarded a single star rating. No restaurant in either India, Pakistan or Bangladesh has attained that coveted culinary award.

It seems curry fiends prefer quantity to quality, Food Street to Regent Street.

F. S. AIJAZUDDIN

[DAWN, 5 Feb. 2026]