Latest news with #Veeraswamy
Scottish Sun
29-04-2025
- Business
- Scottish Sun
UK's oldest Indian restaurant with Michelin star at threat of closure pleas with King Charles to keep it open
The venue has served the late Queen at Buckingham Palace twice LAST DITCH UK's oldest Indian restaurant with Michelin star at threat of closure pleas with King Charles to keep it open Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) THE UK's oldest Indian restaurant has started a petition to King Charles to save it from closure after 99 years. The King's property company has refused to extend the restaurant's lease just before its 100th birthday. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 4 Restaurant owners, Ranjit Mathrani and Namita Panjabi are pleading to keep their venue open Credit: Rex 4 Indian restaurant Veeraswamy might be closing after a lease disagreement Credit: Handout 4 They have catered to the Princess Royal, Lord Cameron, overseas monarchs, and the late queen Credit: Instagram @ Owners of the iconic Indian Veeraswamy, London, have started a petition pleading with to His Majesty King Charles III to save their beloved restaurant. On the petition reads: "Veeraswamy has operated at the same premises from the time it opened its doors on 16 March 1926 the month before the birth date of the late Queen Elizabeth II (We have owned the premises since 1997). "In April next year, Veeraswamy will have achieved the very rare milestone of 100 years as a rent-paying tenant to the Crown in the same premises. "Unfortunately, the Crown Estate, our landlord, has unreasonably refused to extend Veeraswamy's lease. "This is ostensibly because they require the tiny 11 sq metres of the restaurant entrance to extend their own entrance for the offices on the upper floors, and because planned refurbishment works in the upper floors would render the restaurant unable to operate." Co-owners Ranjit Mathrani and Namita Panjabi said the explanation does not add up, calling their Crowne Estate's reasoning to scrap the lease as "flimsy." They continued: "These arguments are flimsy. "There are alternative reception areas and the work can be carried out elsewhere in the building whilst we are operating, as happened frequently." So far the petition has racked up nearly 10,000 signatures. They have applied to the Courts to extend the lease but a decision is not expected until summer 2026, which still puts them at risk of closure before the result. Farewell to a Community Icon: Visocchi's and More (1) The owners explained that despite offering The Crown Estate compensation for a loss of income the landlord has denied their requests. They concluded: "Our distinguished recent clientele has included the Princess Royal, Lord Cameron and overseas monarchs. "We have twice catered for functions for the late Queen at Buckingham Palace, the only restaurant to have done so. "In 2016, we became the oldest restaurant to achieve a Michelin Star which we continue to hold." Veeraswamy on Regent Street has been serving Indian dishes since 1926 but its lease is expiring in June and The Crown Estate has demanded the space in order to finish a 12-month renovation. After 99 years of service in London, the iconic restaurant will be turned into offices. A blindsided Ranjit Mathrani, 81, co-owner of MW Eat, said the news "came out of the blue." He told The Times: "I think they've come to the view that it's too tiresome having a restaurant there, they want it to be all offices. 'They don't care a bugger for history - had they wanted to, they could've easily …put the [office] reception on the first floor. If they'd have asked us to match the [office] rent, I would have. "The effect of what they're doing would be to effectively destroy a major London institution.' Due to the ongoing conflict between the owners and the Crown Estate, Mathrani hasn't had the time to find a new site before Veeraswamy's lease runs out. Now Mathrani faces loss of business and potential redundancies - he said if the landlords were being responsible the restaurant would have been given two years to relocate A spokeswoman for the Crown Estate said: "We need to carry out a comprehensive refurbishment of Victory House. "This includes a major upgrade to the offices and improving the entrance to make it more accessible. "Due to the limited options available in this listed building, we need to remove the entrance to the restaurant, which means we will not be able to offer Veeraswamy an extension when their lease expires.' What is happening to the hospitality industry? By Laura McGuire, consumer reporter MANY Food and drink chains have been struggling in recently as the cost of living has led to fewer people spending on eating out. Businesses had been struggling to bounce back after the pandemic, only to be hit with soaring energy bills and inflation. Multiple chains have been affected, resulting in big-name brands like Wetherspoons and Frankie & Benny's closing branches. Some chains have not survived, Byron Burger fell into administration last year, with owners saying it would result in the loss of over 200 jobs. Pizza giant, Papa Johns is shutting down 43 of its stores soon. Tasty, the owner of Wildwood, said it will shut sites as part of major restructuring plans.
The Sun
29-04-2025
- Business
- The Sun
UK's oldest Indian restaurant with Michelin star at threat of closure pleas with King Charles to keep it open
THE UK's oldest Indian restaurant has started a petition to King Charles to save it from closure after 99 years. The King's property company has refused to extend the restaurant's lease just before its 100th birthday. 4 4 4 Owners of the iconic Indian Veeraswamy, London, have started a petition pleading with to His Majesty King Charles III to save their beloved restaurant. On the petition read s: "Veeraswamy has operated at the same premises from the time it opened its doors on 16 March 1926 the month before the birth date of the late Queen Elizabeth II (We have owned the premises since 1997). "In April next year, Veeraswamy will have achieved the very rare milestone of 100 years as a rent-paying tenant to the Crown in the same premises. "Unfortunately, the Crown Estate, our landlord, has unreasonably refused to extend Veeraswamy's lease. "This is ostensibly because they require the tiny 11 sq metres of the restaurant entrance to extend their own entrance for the offices on the upper floors, and because planned refurbishment works in the upper floors would render the restaurant unable to operate." Co-owners Ranjit Mathrani and Namita Panjabi said the explanation does not add up, calling their Crowne Estate's reasoning to scrap the lease as "flimsy." They continued: "These arguments are flimsy. "There are alternative reception areas and the work can be carried out elsewhere in the building whilst we are operating, as happened frequently." So far the petition has racked up nearly 10,000 signatures. They have applied to the Courts to extend the lease but a decision is not expected until summer 2026, which still puts them at risk of closure before the result. The owners explained that despite offering The Crown Estate compensation for a loss of income the landlord has denied their requests. They concluded: "Our distinguished recent clientele has included the Princess Royal, Lord Cameron and overseas monarchs. "We have twice catered for functions for the late Queen at Buckingham Palace, the only restaurant to have done so. "In 2016, we became the oldest restaurant to achieve a Michelin Star which we continue to hold." Veeraswamy on Regent Street has been serving Indian dishes since 1926 but its lease is expiring in June and The Crown Estate has demanded the space in order to finish a 12-month renovation. After 99 years of service in London, the iconic restaurant will be turned into offices. A blindsided Ranjit Mathrani, 81, co-owner of MW Eat, said the news"came out of the blue." He told The Times: "I think they've come to the view that it's too tiresome having a restaurant there, they want it to be all offices. 'They don't care a bugger for history - had they wanted to, they could've easily …put the [office] reception on the first floor. If they'd have asked us to match the [office] rent, I would have. "The effect of what they're doing would be to effectively destroy a major London institution.' Due to the ongoing conflict between the owners and the Crown Estate, Mathrani hasn't had the time to find a new site before Veeraswamy's lease runs out. Now Mathrani faces loss of business and potential redundancies - he said if the landlords were being responsible the restaurant would have been given two years to relocate A spokeswoman for the Crown Estate said: "We need to carry out a comprehensive refurbishment of Victory House. "This includes a major upgrade to the offices and improving the entrance to make it more accessible. "Due to the limited options available in this listed building, we need to remove the entrance to the restaurant, which means we will not be able to offer Veeraswamy an extension when their lease expires.' What is happening to the hospitality industry? By Laura McGuire, consumer reporter MANY Food and drink chains have been struggling in recently as the cost of living has led to fewer people spending on eating out. Businesses had been struggling to bounce back after the pandemic, only to be hit with soaring energy bills and inflation. Multiple chains have been affected, resulting in big-name brands like Wetherspoons and Frankie & Benny's closing branches. Some chains have not survived, Byron Burger fell into administration last year, with owners saying it would result in the loss of over 200 jobs. Pizza giant, Papa Johns is shutting down 43 of its stores soon. Tasty, the owner of Wildwood, said it will shut sites as part of major restructuring plans. 4
Hindustan Times
28-04-2025
- General
- Hindustan Times
Rude Food by Vir Sanghvi: London's oldest Indian restaurant, Veeraswamy, is battling eviction, fighting for its legacy
In the minds of most Indians who travel to London, there are two kinds of Indian restaurants in the city. The first kind has nothing much to 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 willingly eat. (I imagine that any self-respecting Bangladeshi would also pass out if he had to eat the 'Madras curry.' ) But they have catered to Brits for decades and no matter how much damage they have done to the image of authentic Indian food, the curry house is a much-loved British institution. Then there is a second category of Indian restaurants most of which opened 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 wouldn't be seen dead in the first category of restaurants. But there is one restaurant that defies this categorisation 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. Veeraswamy is London's oldest surviving Indian restaurant. It was established in 1926 when the only Indian restaurants were much more 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 (the word is a 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) but there was nothing that could be classed with the great restaurants of 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 (well, Raj-type 'real') Indian food to London society. So, he opened an upmarket restaurant on Regent Street in London. It's not clear why he called the restaurant Veeraswamy (there were various spellings in the early years) but perhaps he worked out that 'Palmer's' did not exactly reek of authenticity for an Indian restaurant. In those 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 Veeraswamy and the restaurant's recipes were often credited to this mythical person. Palmer sold Veeraswamy 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 opened, Veeraswamy passed into Indian hands. The owners of Mumbai's Ritz Hotel had a stake; they sold out to other Indians and on it went (mostly downhill) till it became increasingly clear that Veeraswamy was only of historical interest. As proper Indian restaurants run by good chefs from India opened, Veeraswamy'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 again with such films as A Passage to India and hit TV shows like The Jewel In The Crown and The Far Pavilions. 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 were on the verge of selling it to a group from Kerala when they received a counter-offer from Ranjit and Namita Mathrani. The Mathranis were relative newcomers to the restaurant business. He was a former British civil servant and merchant banker, and she was a businessperson whose experience went all the way from banking to fashion. They had 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 could revive Veeraswamy. 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 masalas would never travel to the offices of Victory House where the restaurant is located. Against the odds Veeraswamy 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 Veeraswamy 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 had nothing to do with Veeraswamy, the Crown Estate said. But it wanted to increase Victory House's reception area and that meant cutting into the space now occupied by Veeraswamy. What about the history, the heritage and the fact that the restaurant symbolises one of the few happy outcomes of the Raj: An Indian restaurant started by a Brit at the height of the empire and restored to glory by Mathrani, a Brit 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 Veeraswamy could find a new location somewhere which is a little like saying 'we will pull down Mumbai's grand Taj Mahal Hotel but don't worry, it can reopen in a 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 the Crown Estate will redevelop Victory House as a swish office block and wants to further monetise the Veeraswamy space. The Mathranis have 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. Though 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 pleased about what is, in the end, an act of historical and cultural vandalism in the pursuit of profit, carried out in his name. My guess is that wiser counsel will prevail, especially after the uproar in India and the UK. But we will just have to wait and see.
The Hindu
24-04-2025
- Sport
- The Hindu
In the UK, Kerala restaurants serve tapioca, fish curry and Indian maps to diners
The enthusiastic campaign to keep Veeraswamys on London's Regent Street open demonstrates Britain's well-documented passion for Mulligatawny Soup, chicken tikka and vindaloo. The UK's oldest Indian restaurant, the Michelin-starred Veeraswamy may not reach its centenary next year, because of a lease dispute, however it did start a curry revolution. Moving forward from the stereotypical, and admittedly inauthentic India-inspired baltis and tikkas of the past, regional Indian restaurants are getting increasingly popular. Especially those from Kerala. Do you know about Virat Kohli's go-to restaurant when he visits England or plays at the famous Headingley Cricket Ground in the Headingley Stadium complex in Leeds? It's Tharavadu, a fine-dining restaurant serving authentic Kerala food in the city centre. Siby Jose, who co-founded Tharavadu with Prakash Mendonca, Ajith Kumar, Rajesh Nair and Manoharan Gopal says that the restaurant, rose to the front burner of fame in September 2014, just a couple of months after its launch. 'The Indian team was here for a tournament and they were staying at the Marriott Hotel, just across the road from Tharavadu. MS Dhoni wanted South Indian breakfast for the team. However, the Pakistani chef at the hotel was not familiar with South Indian cuisine. So, we went to the hotel early in the morning with dosa batter and made fresh dosas along with sambhar and chutney for the team,' he recalls. Soon after, Sanju Samson visited the restaurant, and then Kohli dropped in. Since then, Tharavadu is frequented by the Indian cricket team every time they are play a match in Leeds. The restaurant has also hosted Kohli and Anushka Sharma during 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup and in 2021 India tour of England. Lack of familiarity The archetypal Indian restaurant in the UK has always been a place that serves curries in a narrow range of bases — tikka masala, karahi, jalfrezi, balti, vindaloo and so on — forming the bulk of what is popularly known as British-Indian cuisine. Although there are restaurants now, mostly in big cities, that focus on delivering more authentic dishes, most of them focus on Delhi or Punjabi cuisines, or popular street specialties, such as chaat, channa bhatura and vada pav. South Indian restaurants are few and far between, and that includes Sri Lankan restaurants that serve dishes popular in South Indian states as well. Britain is still largely unfamiliar with the food of Kerala, even though it has a a significant population of people from the state. So, Siby's and his team have to constantly explain how diverse India is to local customers. 'That's the reason why we have a map of the country here to explain that India is such a big country, and every state has its own style of curries and ingredients,' Siby says, pointing to the big map of India behind him on the wall. Maps of each district in Kerala are also on the walls of Tharavadu. For the same reason, Kayal restaurant's Leicester branch houses two television sets that play visuals of cultural aspects of Kerala on a loop. 'The TV was the first thing that we installed when we started this restaurant 20 years back. When other British restaurants used the TV to show sporting events, we wanted to introduce our customers to the land where this food was coming from,' says Jaimon Thomas, who is the founder and owner of Kayal and its sister restaurants across England. Kayal has three branches, one each in Nottingham, Leamington Spa and West Byfleet. They also have a branch in Melbourne, Australia. The restaurant chain has a franchising program too. 'Kerala cuisine was a real discovery for many people in Leicester when we first opened it. I couldn't believe that customers were queuing up within a few weeks of the opening. Many people were coming from other parts of UK to try our food,' Jaimon recalls. Balancing spices and courses While local crowds are used to the medium-spice levels of the British-Indian cuisine, there is a question of how they might respond to the Kerala dishes, which can contain chilli pepper, bird's-eye green chillies, red chilli powder and black pepper. The trick is to cook as per the spice tolerance of the local crowd, while retaining the original flavours of the recipes. 'We retain the authenticity of the Kerala cuisine while reducing the spice levels a bit, and we don't skip any of the ingredients such as kokum or chillies (that make our dishes unique). We even export green pepper corns from Kerala for certain recipes. For instance, kozhi kurumulagu is a chicken dish made with fresh pepper. We make special chicken stock and infuse it with the flavours of pepper corns and other ingredients without over-spicing it,' explains Ajith Kumar, the executive chef at Tharavadu. Designing the menu in a European-course-meal style is another way in which Kerala restaurants have been catering to locals' preferences. The Kayal restaurant is a trendsetter in this regard as it was one of the first restaurants in the UK to present the Kerala cuisine in a course-meal structure that several other Kerala restaurants follow today. 'So, we have a three-course menu with starters, main course items and desserts. When deciding the starters, the first thing that came to my mind was beef ullarthiyathu that my mom used to make for dad to have with his drinks. Likewise, the banana boli that we have as an afternoon snack in Kerala is a starter for us here,' Jaimon says. Selling point There are exceptions too — not everything has to cater to the British palate. Saji Kurian, veteran chef of Kalpakavadi restaurant, which was launched in 2019 in the old city of York, says the spicy-tangy fish dishes of Kerala sell the most. He adds that they make fish curries just like they do at home in Kerala in an earthen vessel, without compromising on spice levels, only adjusting them when someone asks. 'Kappa (tapioca) and naadan fish curry is probably the most popular choice here. Meen pollichathu sells a lot as well. We use a whole sea bass for that, then stuff it with prawns and roast it in a banana leaf,' he explains. It's the same story at Tharavadu and Kayal. Kerala's backwater delicacies are all the rage, and the flaky, fluffy Kerala porotta is a big hit with locals. 'We did a bit of research, and found that meen kootaan (fish curry) with porotta is the most-ordered dish. On an average, we sell around 300 porottas every day. We got a chef only for that dish,' adds Siby. At Kayal, the seafood platter, comprising squid rings, mussels, prawns and fish fillet, marinated and fried in Kerala style, is an extremely popular starter, and so is the pepper-packed salmon mappas with fluffy appams. Kerala vegan options While seafood and other non-veg dishes sell the most, many health and climate-conscious customers are also finding vegan and gluten-free options in Kerala cuisine attractive. Apart from the obvious options, such as thorans (sauteed vegetables with grated coconut) and vegetable-based dishes that are staple to Kerala cuisine, chefs are improvising to create new dishes. 'Although we had quite a few gluten-free main course options, we did not have anything in the desserts that those allergic to gluten can have. So, we came up with a dessert called vattayappam fudge cake, using Kerala's own sweet rice-cake, vattayappam. It's made by filling vattayappam with a syrup made of butter cream and brown sugar, and then pouring chocolate sauce over it. In our next menu, we are going to introduce a cream-caramel based dessert using kinnathappam (another sweet rice-cake) for those with dairy-allergy,' explains chef Ajith. This demand for vegan food drove Kayal group to even start a dedicated vegan restaurant called Herb in 2017, in Leicester. 'We have staple vegan dishes in our cuisine, and we were noticing that a lot of our customers were coming here just for our vegan options. So, when veganism became a trend some years back, we decided to start a vegan restaurant for fine dining', says Jaimon. A cursory look at the Herb menu shows how diverse the cuisine can be and how flexible it is to improvisation with creations such as green papaya stew and jackfruit ularthiyathum kadala curryum (Slow-roasted jack fruit with chickpea curry). This flexibility, to be able to cater to drastically different food preferences with a variety of authentic veg and non-veg options, is what helps Kerala restaurants stand apart in the highly competitive Indian restaurant market of the UK. With more and more Kerala restaurants opening across the UK every year, it is clear that the cuisine is becoming a mainstay of the British culinary scene.
The Hindu
23-04-2025
- Sport
- The Hindu
In Leeds, Kerala restaurants serve tapioca, fish curry and Indian maps to diners
The enthusiastic campaign to keep Veeraswamys on London's Regent Street open demonstrates Britain's well-documented passion for Mulligatawny Soup, chicken tikka and vindaloo. The UK's oldest Indian restaurant, the Michelin-starred Veeraswamy may not reach its centenary next year, because of a lease dispute, however it did start a curry revolution. Moving forward from the stereotypical, and admittedly inauthentic India-inspired baltis and tikkas of the past, regional Indian restaurants are getting increasingly popular. Especially those from Kerala. Do you know about Virat Kohli's go-to restaurant when he visits England or plays at the famous Headingley Cricket Ground in the Headingley Stadium complex in Leeds? It's Tharavadu, a fine-dining restaurant serving authentic Kerala food in the city centre. Siby Jose, who co-founded Tharavadu with Prakash Mendonca, Ajith Kumar, Rajesh Nair and Manoharan Gopal says that the restaurant, rose to the front burner of fame in September 2014, just a couple of months after its launch. 'The Indian team was here for a tournament and they were staying at the Marriott Hotel, just across the road from Tharavadu. MS Dhoni wanted South Indian breakfast for the team. However, the Pakistani chef at the hotel was not familiar with South Indian cuisine. So, we went to the hotel early in the morning with dosa batter and made fresh dosas along with sambhar and chutney for the team,' he recalls. Soon after, Sanju Samson visited the restaurant, and then Kohli dropped in. Since then, Tharavadu is frequented by the Indian cricket team every time they are play a match in Leeds. The restaurant has also hosted Kohli and Anushka Sharma during 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup and in 2021 India tour of England. Lack of familiarity The archetypal Indian restaurant in the UK has always been a place that serves curries in a narrow range of bases — tikka masala, karahi, jalfrezi, balti, vindaloo and so on — forming the bulk of what is popularly known as British-Indian cuisine. Many of these restaurants are also run by people from the Northern half of the Indian subcontinent, mainly from Bangladesh. Although there are restaurants now, mostly in big cities, that focus on delivering more authentic dishes, most of them focus on Delhi or Punjabi cuisines, or popular street specialties, such as chaat, channa bhatura and vada pav. South Indian restaurants are few and far between, and that includes Sri Lankan restaurants that serve dishes popular in South Indian states as well. Britain is still largely unfamiliar with the food of Kerala, even though it has a a significant population of people from the state. So, Siby's and his team have to constantly explain how diverse India is to local customers. 'That's the reason why we have a map of the country here to explain that India is such a big country, and every state has its own style of curries and ingredients,' Siby says, pointing to the big map of India behind him on the wall. Maps of each district in Kerala are also on the walls of Tharavadu. For the same reason, Kayal restaurant's Leicester branch houses two television sets that play visuals of cultural aspects of Kerala on a loop. 'The TV was the first thing that we installed when we started this restaurant 20 years back. When other British restaurants used the TV to show sporting events, we wanted to introduce our customers to the land where this food was coming from,' says Jaimon Thomas, who is the founder and owner of Kayal and its sister restaurants across England. Kayal has three branches, one each in Nottingham, Leamington Spa and West Byfleet. They also have a branch in Melbourne, Australia. The restaurant chain has a franchising program too. 'Kerala cuisine was a real discovery for many people in Leicester when we first opened it. I couldn't believe that customers were queuing up within a few weeks of the opening. Many people were coming from other parts of UK to try our food,' Jaimon recalls. Balancing spices and courses While local crowds are used to the medium-spice levels of the British-Indian cuisine, there is a question of how they might respond to the Kerala dishes, which can contain chilli pepper, bird's-eye green chillies, red chilli powder and black pepper. The trick is to cook as per the spice tolerance of the local crowd, while retaining the original flavours of the recipes. 'We retain the authenticity of the Kerala cuisine while reducing the spice levels a bit, and we don't skip any of the ingredients such as kokum or chillies (that make our dishes unique). We even export green pepper corns from Kerala for certain recipes. For instance, kozhi kurumulagu is a chicken dish made with fresh pepper. We make special chicken stock and infuse it with the flavours of pepper corns and other ingredients without over-spicing it,' explains Ajith Kumar, the executive chef at Tharavadu. Designing the menu in a European-course-meal style is another way in which Kerala restaurants have been catering to locals' preferences. The Kayal restaurant is a trendsetter in this regard as it was one of the first restaurants in the UK to present the Kerala cuisine in a course-meal structure that several other Kerala restaurants follow today. 'So, we have a three-course menu with starters, main course items and desserts. When deciding the starters, the first thing that came to my mind was beef ullarthiyathu that my mom used to make for dad to have with his drinks. Likewise, the banana boli that we have as an afternoon snack in Kerala is a starter for us here,' Jaimon says. Selling point There are exceptions too — not everything has to cater to the British palate. Saji Kurian, veteran chef of Kalpakavadi restaurant, which was launched in 2019 in the old city of York, says the spicy-tangy fish dishes of Kerala sell the most. He adds that they make fish curries just like they do at home in Kerala in an earthen vessel, without compromising on spice levels, only adjusting them when someone asks. 'Kappa (tapioca) and naadan fish curry is probably the most popular choice here. Meen pollichathu sells a lot as well. We use a whole sea bass for that, then stuff it with prawns and roast it in a banana leaf,' he explains. It's the same story at Tharavadu and Kayal. Kerala's backwater delicacies are all the rage, and the flaky, fluffy Kerala porotta is a big hit with locals. 'We did a bit of research, and found that meen kootaan (fish curry) with porotta is the most-ordered dish. On an average, we sell around 300 porottas every day. We got a chef only for that dish,' adds Siby. At Kayal, the seafood platter, comprising squid rings, mussels, prawns and fish fillet, marinated and fried in Kerala style, is an extremely popular starter, and so is the pepper-packed salmon mappas with fluffy appams. Kerala vegan options While seafood and other non-veg dishes sell the most, many health and climate-conscious customers are also finding vegan and gluten-free options in Kerala cuisine attractive. Apart from the obvious options, such as thorans (sauteed vegetables with grated coconut) and vegetable-based dishes that are staple to Kerala cuisine, chefs are improvising to create new dishes. 'Although we had quite a few gluten-free main course options, we did not have anything in the desserts that those allergic to gluten can have. So, we came up with a dessert called vattayappam fudge cake, using Kerala's own sweet rice-cake, vattayappam. It's made by filling vattayappam with a syrup made of butter cream and brown sugar, and then pouring chocolate sauce over it. In our next menu, we are going to introduce a cream-caramel based dessert using kinnathappam (another sweet rice-cake) for those with dairy-allergy,' explains chef Ajith. This demand for vegan food drove Kayal group to even start a dedicated vegan restaurant called Herb in 2017, in Leicester. 'We have staple vegan dishes in our cuisine, and we were noticing that a lot of our customers were coming here just for our vegan options. So, when veganism became a trend some years back, we decided to start a vegan restaurant for fine dining', says Jaimon. A cursory look at the Herb menu shows how diverse the cuisine can be and how flexible it is to improvisation with creations such as green papaya stew and jackfruit ularthiyathum kadala curryum (Slow-roasted jack fruit with chickpea curry). This flexibility, to be able to cater to drastically different food preferences with a variety of authentic veg and non-veg options, is what helps Kerala restaurants stand apart in the highly competitive Indian restaurant market of the UK. With more and more Kerala restaurants opening across the UK every year, it is clear that the cuisine is becoming a mainstay of the British culinary scene.
