MORE than 15 years ago, the first “upscale” Indian restaurants began appearing in London, including the now-famous Tamarind, which opened in Mayfair. The occasion was notable: in a city filled with curry joints, here was a white-tablecloth operation with Michelin star aspirations. It was eclectic, exciting, expensive and successful — and yes, it got its star. It remains crowded and popular, and I don’t have an unkind word to say about it.

Still, it isn’t what I look for when I go to London. The great thing about the so-called “Indian” food scene here (I’m putting “Indian” in quotation marks because a more accurate term, I suppose, would be “subcontinental,” which would include food from Pakistan, and the disputed land of Kashmir, among other areas) is that you can find it in every neighborhood and it’s the genuine item. The white tablecloth spots are fine for people who are skittish about true subcontinental food. But those that offer the real deal are amazing, and frankly have more guts than those that cater to, well, a white-tablecloth clientele. And don’t assume that good ingredients are restricted to the pricey places; every restaurant discussed here uses high-quality meat and vegetables.

For New Yorkers, and even more so for people from other parts of the United States, the opportunity to eat fine, authentic “Indian” food does not come often. Yes, there are such places, but they often don’t last long, and, even more often, they stray from their roots in an attempt to cater to mainstream tastes. In London — to use a British term — brilliant choices abound. Here are four, more or less in order of my preference, though they are all very close. (One that did not quite make the cut, but which I will try again, is Malabar Junction, in Bloomsbury.)

Café Spice Namasté

Intricate, fascinating, different, delicious and unpretentious.

That should do it, though some details are in order. Café Spice in the East End has a casual, ’70s, almost hippie-ish look, with bright colors and uniformed staff. It demonstrates not only how sophisticated real “Indian” (O.K., last time with the quotes) food can be, but how fine it can be, even in such a laid-back place.

Appearance aside, it is a terrific restaurant, very close to mind-blowing. The food was among the most intricate I ate during a three-week eating tour of Europe. The chef is the well-established and much-loved Cyrus Todiwala, at home with a variety of styles and able to discuss details of every dish at length.

Among my favorites were cheera wada, small patties of yellow split pea and spinach from Kerala; prawns, Parsi style, in a sauce of tamarind and sugar; and missal pao, mushrooms and chickpeas in coconut curry, served with crisp chickpea noodles.

Aside from the eclectic nature of the cooking, two factors stand out. First, the ingredients are superior. (You may be subject to a little spiel about the rare breed of pork or lamb you’re eating, but it’s worth it; British meat, when it’s good, is very good.) Second, the menu includes Goan dishes, which are difficult to find elsewhere, and Mr. Todiwala’s versions are wonderful. Goa, of course, was long a Portuguese colony, so you’re likely to be presented with something you might find in Brazil — like feijoada, replete with chorizo. Another excellent Goan dish showed up on the dessert menu: bebinca, a layering of coconut pancakes. Rose-flavored ice cream with cardamom was another winner

Café Spice Namasté, 16 Prescot Street, East End; (44-207) 488-9242; cafespice.co.uk. An average meal for two, without drinks or tip, is about £50, or $77 at $1.53 to the pound.

For a full version of the article, please visit http://travel.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/travel/in-london-great-indian-food-without-the-fuss.html?ref=travel

 Chef Patron of landmark Indian restaurant Cafe Spice Namaste and the brand new Mr Todiwala’s Kitchen at Hilton London Heathrow Terminal 5, Cyrus will be creating a five-course gourmand’s menu featuring seasonal game specialities using all-British produce. Courses include Pheasant and Partridge Chilli Fry a la Goa-Portuguesa, Norfolk Turkey Nargisi Kofta Curry and Welsh Hen Crab and Mussel Chaat. Proceeds from the dinner, an auction, games and raffles will go to ABF The Soldiers’ Fund and The Clink Charity. Pipe Dream will be converting the Maze Inn in Southgate into a 70-seater dining room, while Game-To-Eat, the campaign organisation dedicated to increasing the eating and enjoyment of British wild game, will be one of the main sponsors of the evening.

Cyrus Todiwala said, ‘I am delighted to be able to help support two fantastic charities that are doing so much good during a time when our society is facing so many social and economic challenges. The ABF Soldier’s Charity helps individual soldiers and their families who have fallen on hard times by extending much needed financial support. This is the least we can do to thank these brave people for the sacrifices they have made to keep the rest of us safe. And I’ve seen firsthand how The Clink Charity helps prepare prisoners for a new life outside by providing them with catering skills and qualifications that can help build their confidence.’ 

Mike Matthews, Founder of Pipe Dream, said, ‘My partner Jim Patel and I are over the moon about having such an eminent chef as Cyrus Todiwala cooking for our Evening of Hope charity dinner. Pipe Dream relies on the support of established chefs like Cyrus to inspire up and coming chefs to make their dreams of owning a restaurant come true. This is one of the messages we want to send out on the night — never stop hoping you’ll be a success or overcome challenges because of you have the talent, attitude and most importantly, support, it can happen. This is what the charities Cyrus personally chose to support on the night are saying too, whether it’s to ex-offenders or servicemen.’

An Evening of Hope will take place on Tuesday, 22nd November 2011 at 7pm at Pipe Dream at the Maze Inn, 7 Chase Side, Southgate, London N14 5BP.Tickets are £60 per person and include a glass of bubbly and a 5-course dinner. Carriages by 10.30pm. Tickets can be booked on-line at http://www.pipedreamrestaurant.co.uk/book-a-table/book/id/18.

For more information on Cyrus Todiwala and Cafe Spice Namaste, contact Gina McAdam on 078796 48930 or gina@stratemarco.com.  For more information on Pipe Dream, contact Jim Patel at Jim@pipedreamrestaurant.co.uk.

WorldSkills London 2011 Ambassador Cyrus Todiwala is the executive chef of award winning Café Spice Namasté, which he owns with his wife Pervin.

Born and raised in Bombay, Cyrus Todiwala has been passionate about all things culinary since watching his mother cook when he was a boy. Despite his parents’ fears, Cyrus decided to pursue a career in catering and after catering college, he started working for the Taj Group where he rose to become executive chef of their hotels in Goa. There, he was able to practise the grand art of classical French cooking. In 1991, he accepted an offer to come to the UK to help run a small restaurant, Namasté, where he started to develop his reputation for using traditional techniques to carve out new sub-continental dishes with a European twist.

Today Café Spice Namasté is owned by Cyrus and his wife, helpmate and business partner, Pervin, who looks after Front of House and Operations and is a trained chef in her own right.

Cyrus Todiwala said, ‘When they asked me to be an Ambassador for WorldSkills London 2011, I was delighted. Education, training and skills are the engines of personal, professional, socio-economic and cultural progress. I have always believed that each of us has the potential to make something of ourselves. Young people must know that inside them is a kernel of success and sometimes it’s only by competing with others that we can experience the excellence we all have within us. And what better success can we achieve than becoming an inspiration to others? This is an ethos that my wife Pervin and I have held since our days in Bombay and Goa, and have reminded ourselves of every day, for the past 16 years, as we’ve run Café Spice Namasté  in a very competitive environment. My advice to young people today is to seek to identify, and then play to their strengths. WorldSkills encourages them to do just that.’

For more information of WorldSkills London 2011, visit www.worldskillslondon2011. For more information on Cyrus and Pervin Todiwala, contact Gina McAdam on 078796 48930.

An initiative of the Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA), the campaign aims to help reduce food waste in UK restaurants by encouraging diners to take home their leftovers. The SRA, a not-for-profit organisation that helps restaurants become more sustainable through guidance and support, is providing restaurants with 25,000 100% biodegradable ‘doggy boxes’ manufactured by London BioPackaging. The boxes are suitable for recycling and composting and are available to restaurants free of charge.

Cyrus Todiwala said, ‘Food waste is a perennial problem and fortunately, it has started to receive the recognition required for real action to be taken. That my industry is also taking the matter into its own hands is encouraging. Pervin and I and everyone at Café Spice Namasté are extremely proud of our Three Star Sustainability Champion status from the Sustainable Restaurant Association, and we’re throwing our weight completely behind the SRA’s Too Good to Waste campaign, pledging to make good use of the biodegradable doggy boxes that will be circulated to restaurants like ours.

Although happily, not too many of our customers tend to leave food on their plates, knowing that they can take home the food they can’t finish in environmentally-friendly containers is great. It also helps get around what seems to be British restaurant-goers’ collective embarrassment about asking for doggy bags. In Asia we do it all the time. I’m sure this campaign will start a positive cultural shift that helps to minimise food waste!’

Other celebrities, chefs, restaurateurs and sustainability campaigners are likewise supporting the ‘Too Good to Waste’ campaign, including food writer and broadcaster Matthew Fort, Lindsay Boswell, CEO of FareShare, Thomasina Meirs, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Bruno Loubet. According to the SRA, on average a UK restaurant generates 21,000 tons of food waste every year. That could mean a lot of doggy boxes.

For more information on the SRA’s  ’Too Good to Waste’ campaign, click on http://www.toogood-towaste.co.uk.

For more information on Cafe Spice Namaste, contact Gina McAdam at gina@stratemarco.com or Pervin Todiwala at pervin27@yahoo.com.

It’s an open secret, however, that they’ve gone native. The passionate proprietors of Cafe Spice Namaste in London are using organic produce from Lord Newborough’s renowned Rhug Estate, suppliers they’ve counted on in the past for their landmark Indian restaurant’s special menus, including the current Goan Speciality Menu running until the end of September.

Last month, Café Spice Namaste was awarded Three-Star Sustainability Champion status by the Sustainable Restaurant Association.

‘The Rhug Estate are reliable and have an impeccable reputation as a business, which is what makes them so good to deal with. And of course their lamb is among the very best we have ever tasted,’ says Pervin Todiwala.

For his part, Cyrus Todiwala (who last year was named one of the UK capital’s most influential foodies by the London Evening Standard) shares a little known fact about Indian cuisine, and one that could shed some light on the bangers and burgers menu he’s bringing to Abergavenny this year.

‘Indian culture is all about grilling,’ Cyrus says. ‘We may even have brought the world the brazier, which is a rectangular charcoal grill that
you can find on the streets of India, part of our lively street food culture. We call these grills sigris.’

‘What’s more, what is a burger but a kebab? A burger is a flat whole chappati kebab. We call it a flip-flop kebab…like the flat slippers that have become fashionable again!’

The real secret, perhaps, is that bangers and burgers are never out of fashion at a festival. And it’s the unique combination of fine meat and exceptional spices that distinguishes a good from a great dish. Try them with Mr Todiwala’s Splendidly Spicy Pickles and Chutneys, once again in the Brewery Yard. Like everything about Cafe Spice Namaste, they’ll make your taste buds tingle!

For more information, contact Gina McAdam on 07879648930 or Pervin Todiwala at pervin27@yahoo.com

Blanc will work with the City of London Corporation, Sustainable Fish City, the Fishmongers Company and SeaWeb Seafood Choices as part of the prestigious Sustainable City Awards.

Announcing the competition, Blanc said: “Good ethics should be part of everyday business. The focus of this year’s prestigious award is on sustainable fish. This is a chance for the restaurants and caterers of this country to shout about what they are doing to protect our precious marine resources, get rightful recognition and inspire others. We will be looking for entrants that set clear guidelines on what they will and will not serve and demonstrate passion for this subject.”

The winner of last year’s award, which looked at all aspects of food sustainability, was Café Spice Namaste. Chef Cyrus Todiwala who celebrated a double victory by scooping the Leadership in Sustainability award as well commented “It was fantastic to win last year’s awards, and the coverage of the beliefs that underpin our business was good news. I am delighted that this year the focus will be on fish. By buying sustainable fish, restaurants will be playing their part in preventing the seas from being over-fished.”

Register for entry now by contacting Sustainable Fish City at jon@sustainweb.org or call 0207 837 1228 and ask for Jon Walker.

Restaurant Champion Winners Revealed!

6th June 2011 – Our competition to find the most environmentally conscious restaurant in the UK has now closed and we are thrilled to announce that Café Spice Namaste has been crowned our Green Champion of the Year!

To make the important decision, we appointed an independent judging panel, formed of representatives from Eat Out, Foodservice Footprint and the Sustainable Restaurant Association, who were all impressed with the high standard of entries. The panel chose Café Spice Namaste as overall winner because of the great lengths proprietor Cyrus Todiwala has gone to in putting sustainability at the top of his agenda for the restaurant. Cyrus walks away from the competition with £5,000 worth of our ETL listed equipment.

Due to the high level of entries, the judges couldn’t decide on just one runner up, and so named two. Both the Green Dragon in Lavington, Wiltshire, and Ruddyglow Park Country Hose in Sutherland Scotland, were both thrilled to receive a highly sought after copy of Rene Redzepi’s book ‘Noma, Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine’, the restaurant recently crowned winner of the 2011 World’s Best Restaurant award. A big well done to the Green Dragon and Ruddyglow Park.

Hi and welcome to our first Q&A with the host of talent appearing at The Big Feastival. Each week we’ll be talking to one of the many chefs or musicians involved with the event about all things food and music – this week it’s the turn of Cyrus Todiwala, Chef Patron at Cafe Spice Namaste

What is on the stereo in your kitchen?
Any mixed music from Magic to Asian channels to Football.

When you get back to your home, what do you enjoy eating and what do you listen to?
Eating is varied, more often than not it’s a few crackers and some odd cheese, a few nuts and a large mug of some infused tea – preferably a variety of green & white teas. Unless I am in early, when I can eat the family meal or even a toasted sandwich and a glass of wine every now and again.

If you could have an allotment anywhere in the world, where would it be?
Somewhere in the British countryside

What is your best festival food experience?
Good Ol’ Parsee Food which sadly is not commonly prepared these days, even in India. When you say festival to an Indian it simply means the vast array of food and sweets prepared at festive occasions and our communities’ cuisine is no less enchanting.

Which musician (alive or dead) would you most like to cook for?
Dr. Zubin Mehta. He is an out and out foodie, a member of our community and is devastated when he cannot enjoy a great meal.

What was the first band you saw play live?
Osibisa

Have you ever had any famous musicians at your restaurant?
Dr Zubin Mehta, Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber, The Now World Famous Ukulele Triplets.

Cyrus and Pervin Todiwala are thrilled to offer feastival-goers a slice of Cafe Spice Namaste, their landmark Indian restaurant inspired by their Parsee heritage and renowned the world over for its unique cuisine melding exotic flavours and spices to create extraordinary twists on traditional dishes. Winner of the 2011 Sustainable Food Award.

Cyrus Todiwala OBE, chef owner of Café Spice Namaste in London, is to open a new restaurant at Hilton’s latest luxury hotel opening at Heathrow Terminal 5 in September 2011.