50 Great Curries of India

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Indeed, the success of Chutney Mary paved the way for the creation of what is arguably the UK’s most successful Indian restaurant business. The trio launched two further Indian fine dining restaurants - grill restaurant Amaya in Knightsbridge and the more traditional Veeraswamy near Piccadilly Circus - alongside the seven-strong Masala Zone, which started out as a casual dining chain but has in recent years transitioned to more of a mid-market proposition. If using fresh prawns, wash and remove the veins. ( ¿Qué? It’s not a vein, it’s the intestinal tract.) The recipe appears in Camellia’s 50 Great Curries of India cookbook, which has sold 1.75 million copies worldwide. (It’s called The Great Curries of India in the U.S. edition.)

During this period Chutney Mary chalked up many firsts. It was the first Indian restaurant in London to serve foie gras and game and fresh seafood and the first to have a serious wine list. The food became even more refined and the prices went up commensurately. Camellia was still working at Taj Group at the time (she left in 2001) and was therefore not officially involved in the business when Chutney Mary launched, although she did have some input. Camellia spearheaded the group's third upmarket restaurant, Amaya, which opened in Belgravia in October 2004.Add half the tamarind water (I still haven’t figured out what you’re supposed to do with the other half), the jaggery, curry and coriander leaves and about 1½ teaspoons of salt. This one niggle aside, they appear content with what the restaurant has achieved and how it is perceived by customers and - as importantly, it appears - their peers.

The place was a sensation when it first opened. Setting the scene for elegant Indian cuisine with fine dining service, it started a trend for other Indian chefs – including now hugely well-known names such as Atul Kochhar, who’d trained in top Indian hotels – to come to the UK and open their own restaurants. The signature dishes that drew the crowds when Chutney Mary first hit London 25 years ago were the kind the sisters enjoyed at home; bangalore bangers and mash, salmon kedgeree and rogan josh. Gradually, they came to specialise in regional and coastal Indian cuisine which was then unknown in London restaurants. Robbie Williams used to request takeaways for his flights and regular diners included Richard Burton and Camilla Parker Bowles. Chutney Mary’s original look was based on the India of the 1920s and 1930s. There were murals depicting the British in India and even the titular Chutney Mary herself dining with British officers. Staff were garbed in uniforms that continued the colonial theme. She had far more influence over the culinary direction of each property than that title suggests, working with chefs to create new restaurants as the Taj Group converted some of the palaces she ate in as a child to upscale hotels.This is down to down to their privileged upbringing in Indian in the 50s and 60s – Namita says they are midnight’s children, a reference to Salman Rushdie famed book about India’s transition from British colonialism to independence. Add the puréed coconut mixture and the coconut milk. Taste for seasoning and adjust the salt and sugar if necessary. Cook for 5 minutes or until preferred texture of pineapple is reached, Garnish with coriander leaves to serve.

Camellia Panjabi is the author of the world's best-selling book on curry, 50 Great Curries of India (Kyle Cathie 2006). It has sold over 800,000 copies and has been described as 'the definitive guide to Indian cooking'. For those who are forsaking pleasures of the flesh, I have a really delicious Indian dish where fruit is the star. Chef Camellia Panjabi’s pineapple curry, with coconut, is subtly spiced and refreshing. (Having said that, I also tried my own version with slices of pork.) Camellia, who had been involved from the start, came on board full-time in 2001 when the group opened its first Masala Zone in Soho, followed by a second in Islington. Camellia opened the Bombay Brasserie in London, in 1982, introducing regional Indian cooking to the UK for the first time, and changing the way Indian cuisine is perceived in Britain. The trio were born in India, where Camellia launched 40 restaurants over a 30-year period as marketing director of Taj Hotels, including the Bombay Brasserie and the Ile de Kashmir in Paris.

There's something about Mary

Fantastic recipe. It tastes great and feels a lot healthier than my takeaway. Really looking forward to the next version. Star! Ranjit joined the civil service in 1967 but left as a high-powered mandarin in 1984 to pursue an equally successful career as a merchant banker holding senior roles at major banks before starting his own international financial advisory business, Vanguard Capital, in 1993, advising governments and major corporations. The early days of the business Most critical to the character of the final dish is the masala, the spice paste which forms the base of the sauce. There are some ingredients common to all the recipes I try – garlic, turmeric, red chillies, coriander seeds – and some more esoteric additions. Vivek Singh includes star anise for example, a spice more typical of points further east but which, according to Madhur Jaffrey, is a legacy of Goa's trading past, and I love the slightly mentholated character it give his sauce. He also uses cloves, which add a deep sweetness to the dish. Chelsea wasn't the restaurant hotspot it once was,” says Mathrani. “We did of course have a loyal customer base there, but we suffered from being that little bit further out. Our City-based customers in particular were settling for the West End rather than coming over to Chelsea.”

Is Camellia Panjabi a rebel? She’s comfortable with rattling conventions, loves what she calls ‘cross-fertilisation’ in food, thrives on change. ‘If you don’t do anything new, life would be too boring. You can’t just go on opening new restaurants, you [must] have fun within your [existing ones].’ She likes what she calls ‘titillation’ – in the purest sense of the word, of course. ‘People come to us because they know we are passionate and good [at what we do] and experimental. They come with anticipation.’ There are very few people that I know whose palates can span a whole continent," explains Mathrani, who was also born into an extremely well-to-do Indian family. "They can go from a Bengali dish to a Keralan dish to a Goan dish and pinpoint its very essence. They understand exactly how it needs to be." Chhagan Bhujbal should resign, CM should take a stand on him, says fellow Maharashtra minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil Namita and Camellia are regarded as leading authorities on authentic Indian cuisine which they have researched extensively in people's homes, Maharaja's palaces and wayside stalls rather than conventional restaurants.

Although both are delicious, I think that without frying the masala you lose some of its aromatic qualities – after all, to take just one of the ingredients, garlic is far more flavourful fried than poached. I do love the tadka in Menezes' dish though: curry leaves, ginger and mustard seeds, fried in hot oil until sizzling and aromatic, then stirred into the finished dish: it really lifts the flavours. The more spice the better, as far as I'm concerned. Other ingredients We'd research local dishes. It’s important to bear in mind that there were very few restaurants and hotels in India at that point," says Camellia. "We were talking to former palace chefs and going into people's homes." The name Chutney Mary referred to the kind of Indian woman of the British era who enjoyed the Anglo culture and was very modern and playful. To the Panjabi sisters, this epitomised Chutney Mary’s approach; something very different to other Indian restaurants in London at the time. ‘We were considered quite racy and radical,’ laughs Namita. The couple dubbed it the “greatest day in their restaurant’s six-year history”, as Prince William also entertained the crowds by answering the phone to take a lunch booking.