The Tandoori Story

It's about that baked chicken on everybody's mouth in the US of A. Ask your new American friend to name the language commonly spoken in India. Chances are, a few pondering moments later you'd get the answer - "Hindu". Ask the same person, what India's favourite food is, "Tandoori Chicken" you'll be told in a flash. Isn't it worth finding out it's origin and what's behind it's celebrity status, from the Horse's mouth! This is the Story that dead Chickens don't tell.

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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.
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- HT