Indian cuisine in Britain – The past, present and future

13th-19th October is National Curry Week in Britain. Now in its 17th year, the event celebrates Britain’s favourite dish while raising money to combat poverty through a variety of special dinners, record-breaking attempts, raffles and auctions.

But how did curry come to be so popular with the public? And how have perceptions changed?

The first dedicated Indian restaurant in Britain was established in London’s West End in 1809 by the Indian Sake Dean Mahomed, a writer and entrepreneur. He hoped to cater for ‘nabobs’; Britons who had served in India and had then returned to Britain, believing they would miss Indian food and therefore welcome his restaurant.

Unfortunately his establishment faced stiff competition from established restaurants and Indian servants who would cook their native dishes for their masters. Mahomed eventually declared bankruptcy in 1812.

Curry became fashionable in Victorian households, but Indian restaurants didn’t really take off until 1926 with the establishment of Veeraswamy, the UK’s oldest surviving Indian restaurant.

The restaurant was immensely fashionable, attracting famous names such as Winston Churchill, Edward VIII and Charlie Chaplin, and by 1939 there were six dedicated Indian restaurants in Britain. By 1960 there were more than 500. The numbers have continued to increase into the 21^st Century, with over 15,000 dedicated Indian restaurants in Britain today.

An influx of Indian immigrants in the 1960s and an influx of Bangladeshi immigrants after 1971 has led to our current affair with curry, and a climate in which chicken tikka masala is now according to Robin Cook in 2001, ‘a true British national dish’. Curry is now being sold at all levels of the food market, from supermarket takeaway to fine-dining.

Restaurants such as London’s The Cinnamon Club, opened in 2001, think of themselves as a new generation of modern Indian restaurants, with a mission to ‘revolutionise’ Indian cooking in the UK and ‘continue to push the boundaries’. Furthermore, upmarket curry houses are now being awarded Michelin stars, a far cry from the everyman restaurants of the 1970s and beyond.

Those aiming themselves at the lower-end market are struggling to compete with supermarket ready-curries which seemingly offer quality on par with a restaurant but at a much lower price. In addition to this, chefs are becoming harder to find because of strict Visa rules requiring them to speak English and earn at least £20,300 a year, according to The Economist. Restrictions like these hit cheaper eateries the hardest. British Asians aren’t the solution either – young Anglo-Bangladeshis no longer want to work in restaurants and are studying to become doctors or lawyers instead.

So ‘posh’ curry houses may represent the future of Indian cuisine in the UK, especially because the country’s tastes are shifting. Jalfrezi has replaced tikka masala as the nation’s favourite curry, suggesting a move away from the weaker, Anglicised idea of curry towards something more exotic. These newer, more extravagantly priced restaurants reject both the idea of the ‘British’ curry and the traditional one in favour of something more adventurous.

No one can be sure what the future holds for curry in Britain, but rest assured it’s an exciting time to be serving or eating Indian cuisine.

By Stuart Armstrong

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