Newe Delhi, October 21, 2004
IANS
After feeding prime ministers, kings and monarchs,
New Delhi's Moti Mahal restaurant, where the tandoori
chicken was said to be born, aims to spread its
aroma around the world.
"Tandoori chicken has become a global dish and
we are proud of it," said Monish Gujral, son
of restaurateur Kundan Lal Gujral, who started
Moti Mahal in 1947 in Daryaganj.
"But now we want to take our special taste to
the world ourselves. We are opening in the Middle
East, in Britain and in the US -- a global trail of
the tandoori chicken."
Kundan Lal Gujral, who came to India from
the North West Frontier Province (now in Pakistan)
during the subcontinent's partition, was the man who
first got the idea of baking chicken in the great
earth oven, common across villages in the subcontinent
for baking bread.
The chicken emerged, as James Traub wrote in his
1984 book 'India, the Challenge of Change', "light
pink in the centre, crisp on the outside, slightly
smoky throughout and with a fine mist of sauce still
clinging on the surface."
"It is pungent with cumin and coriander, rather
than hot with chilli. One should give in, after the
first bite of tender chicken, to the sudden desire
to weep. India is an emotional country, after all,"
Traub wrote.
In fact, the chicken tikka masala, which has now
become almost a national dish of Britain, is an offshoot
of Kundan Lal's tandoori chicken and butter chicken.
The dish made the man. So impressed was India's first
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru by Kundal Lal's
dishes that Moti Mahal became a permanent fixture
in all his state banquets.
Standing beside a large framed photo of Jawaharlal
Nehru talking to Jacqueline Kennedy before a lunch
catered by Moti Mahal, Monish rattled off names of
celebrities who fell for tandoori chicken.
"(Former American President Richard) Nixon,
the King of Nepal, (Nikolai Bulganin), (Nikita) Krushchev,
(Hindi film actor) Prem Chopra, everyone loved our
food," said Monish.
"In fact, when the Shah of Iran came
on a state visit to India, the Indian Education Minister
Maulana Azad told him that coming to Delhi without
eating at Moti Mahal was like going to Agra and not
seeing the Taj Mahal," he reminisced.
In fact, so impressed was Krushchev with Moti Mahal
food that he invited Kundan Lal to have a shop at
an international trade fair in Moscow.
After Nehru, his daughter and then Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi continued the relationship with Moti
Mahal. So fascinated was she by the food that at the
wedding of her younger son Sanjay Gandhi, Moti
Mahal specialties dominated the dinner.
On his part, Monish has already published a book
on famous Moti Mahal recipes, a CD of qawalis to go
with the food, and is now starting on building the
trail.
"We want that wherever the words 'tandoori chicken'
is mentioned, so is Moti Mahal," he added.
