Veeraswamy
Veeraswamy is an Indian restaurant in London, located at 99–101 Regent Street. It was opened in 1926 by Edward Palmer, an Anglo-Indian retired Indian Army">Indian cuisine">Indian Army officer, the grandson of an English general and an Indian princess. By 2006, it had become the oldest surviving Indian restaurant in the United Kingdom.
In its early years, Veeraswamy served Anglo-Indian cuisine, but in recent decades, based on the popularity of authentic Indian food in the UK, has served a menu of regional Indian cuisine, including dishes from Punjab, Lucknow, Kashmir, and Goa. Edward Palmer initially used the name E. P. Veerasawmy for his food business and cookery book; it became Veeraswamy because of a printing error.
History
E. P. Veeraswamy & Co., 1896
Edward Palmer had considerable knowledge of Indian food, and lectured on the subject. He founded E. P. Veeraswamy & Co. in Hornsey in 1896 to promote Indian foods "so that they could be used under Western conditions and yet produce Eastern results". He sold them under the trademark 'Nizam'. In 1915 Veeraswamy published a recipe book, Indian Cookery for Use in All Countries; it remained in print into the 21st century.The British Empire Exhibition, 1924
In 1924 Palmer was engaged to advise the restaurant in the Indian Government Pavilion at the British Empire Exhibition in Wembley Park, Middlesex. This included providing some of the dishes served. In 1924 the restaurant served an average of 500 curries a day. The Indian Pavilion was turned into an 'oriental bazaar' selling goods from the British Raj and Burma. In 1925 the restaurant could seat 200 people.The custom of drinking lager with Indian food may be related to Prince Axel of Denmark's visit to the Veeraswamy-connected Indian restaurant at the British Empire Exhibition on 2 May 1924. He enjoyed his meal and later visited the Regent Street restaurant, apparently bringing a barrel of Carlsberg lager with him. He enjoyed his meal again, and decided to send a barrel of Carlsberg to the restaurant every year thereafter. The beer proved popular, so the restaurant started importing Carlsberg, and when waiters left to found or work in other Indian restaurants, they served Carlsberg as well.
Regent Street restaurant, 1926
Veeraswamy opened in Regent Street in 1926. It was not the first Indian restaurant to have been founded in Britain, as the Hindoostane Coffee House in Marylebone had been opened by Sake Dean Mahomed in 1810, closing in 1812.The restaurant was taken over by Sir William Steward in 1934. In 1947, the restaurant's menu described some of its offerings, such as a vegetable curry, tarkari ki salan, as "Indian fare". The food on offer became recognisably more like Curry in [the United Kingdom|British Indian restaurant fare] in the following years. The menu had acquired dishes such as vindaloo, korma, and poppadums by 1952. Tandoori chicken was on the menu by 1959, once Steward had obtained Britain's first tandoor oven for the restaurant.
The restaurant decor was updated repeatedly, and adopted an ultramodern theme in the late 1990s; however, for its 80th anniversary in 2006, it was redecorated in a 1920s motif. Veeraswamy was acquired by the Chutney Mary group in 1997, placing it under the ownership of Ranjit Mathrani and Namitha Panjabi.
Notable diners at Veeraswamy have included Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, King Gustav VI of Sweden, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Charlie Chaplin, Marlon Brando and Ian Sinclair. Sir Abdul Qadir dined at the restaurant in February 1939, when the menu consisted of Mulligatawny Soup, Kashmiri fish, Chicken Madras and suji halva.
In 2016 Veeraswamy was awarded a Michelin star. The Michelin Guide said that it "may have opened in 1926, but the kitchen continues to produce wonderfully authentic and satisfying dishes after all these years. You can expect to find cuisine from all parts of India, including cleverly enhanced street snacks and stand-out dishes inspired by royal recipes. Top quality British produce is often used, such as Welsh lamb for the Kashmiri rogan josh. The room is awash with colour and is run with charm and obvious pride".