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UK celebrates first Indian restaurant started by a Bihari

LONDON — It is 200 years since the first Indian restaurant was opened in Britain by a man from Bihar and Britons across the country are celebrating the event with a National Curry Week.

From the humble beginning in London in the form of ‘The Hindostanee Coffee House’ on George Street, Portman Square, in 1809, the Indian food industry has grown into one of Britain’s largest, employing over 100,000 people with a turnover of millions. It is said that today there is nary a village or street in Britain that does not have an Indian restaurant.

National Curry Week was started in 1998 to promote the cuisine and to raise funds for charities concentrating on hunger, malnourishment and poverty. During the week, curry lovers visit their local curry houses, some of which stage special events and fun challenges.

The story goes that Sake Dean Mohamet, who was born in 1759 in Patna, joined the East Indian Company and rose to the rank of subedar. He and his best friend, Captain Godfrey Baker, came to Britain in 1784 and started a new life in Ireland.

Dean studied English and married Jane Daly, “a pretty Irish girl of respectable parentage”. He had several children and published a book with the title: “The Travels of Dean Mahomet, a Native of Patna.”

Dean moved to Portman Square in London 1809 where he joined the vapour bath owned by Sir Basil Cochrane. Here Mahomet added “champi” to the list of services offered, and later opened The Hindostanee Coffee House. His restaurant was aimed at Anglo-Indians for the “enjoyment of Hookha, with ‘real chilm tobacco’, and offered Indian dishes in the highest perfection, and allowed by the greatest epicures to be unequalled to any curries ever made in England”, in a setting decorated with Indian and Oriental scenes.

The food served at his restaurant was good, but the time was wrong. Three years later Dean was declared bankrupt. After several trysts in his fortunes, he was appointed “Shampooing Surgeon” to King George IV. He died in 1851.

Organisers of the National Curry Week believe the first restaurant was opened in 1809, while other historical sources claim that the restaurant was opened in 1810.

According to the Curry Tree Charitable Fund, one of the organisers of the National Curry Week, since Dean¿s first Indian restaurant, the industry has grown to nearly 10,000 today, generating considerable revenue to the exchequer and employing over 100,000 people.

“Over that 200 year period the industry has served 2.5 billion people – a figure to be exceeded in just 20 years to come – and over £30 billion has been spent on food alone, a figure that will be beaten in the coming 15 years.

During these 200 years people have consumed nearly 5 billion poppadums and 400 million portions of Chicken Tikka Masala, the organisers said.

Nearly 23 million people (over a third of the population) in Britain eat out on a regular basis and most of these enjoy a restaurant curry on one or more occasion while millions more opt for Indian takeaways, cook Indian dishes at home or buy ready made from the supermarket.

- AGENCIES