Cyrus Todiwala

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Cyrus Todiwala
Born (1956-10-16) October 16, 1956[1]
Mumbai, India
Cooking style Parsi cuisine
Spouse Pervin Todiwala
Official website
cafespice.co.uk

Cyrus Rustom Todiwala OBE, DL, (born 16 October 1956), is chef proprietor of Café Spice Namasté and a celebrity television chef. He trained at the Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces chain in India, and rose to become executive chef for eleven restaurants within those hotels. He moved to the UK in 1991 with his family, and after some initial financial difficulties after taking over a restaurant, Michael Gottlieb invested allowing Todiwala to open Café Spice Namasté in 1995, for which he is best known.

He has subsequently launched a range of condiments and sauces called Mr Todiwala's, and a second restaurant called Mr Todiwala's Kitchen, which is located at Heathrow Airport. He was awarded an MBE in 2000, and an OBE in 2009. He has been awarded an honorary doctorate and been made an honorary professor. In 2012, he cooked for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. He has appeared on multiple television and radio shows.

Biography

Todiwala's restaurant, Café Spice Namasté, in London

Born and brought up in Mumbai, India, he lived with his family in a house split into two flats. His father worked for the Automobile Association as Chief of Road Service for Western India.[2] While his uncle's family and his grandparents lived in one of the flats, his family lived in the other. The family had a large collection of animals including a lizard, ten squirrels, four parrots, two cockerels, some dogs and a crow who wouldn't leave.[3]

Todiwala graduated from Sophia Shree B K Somani Polytechnic having studied Hotel Administration & Food Technology.[4] His first job was as a busboy.[5] He trained as a chef with Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces in India, eventually becoming Executive Chef for all of the chain's hotels in India, some eleven restaurants with 160 staff. He moved to Australia in 1991, but afterwards at the suggestion of a friend he moved to the United Kingdom with his family,[6][7] having been invited to run a restaurant in Alie Street in London called Namasté, which Todiwala describes as having been "pretty lousy".[8] The owners of the restaurant went into financial difficulty despite critical acclaim for Todiwala's work. Being faced with unemployment whilst on a work visa, he took over the restaurant with the help of his wife, Pervin. They became homeless following the takeover as the family's home was included as part of the agreement with the previous owners, and Cyrus found that he immediately went into financial difficulty having taken on the debts incurred by the previous owners.[8]

With banks refusing to give him loans, he turned to family members to help support his restaurant.[8] They were given multiple small sums, but won a car in a competition and sold it, enabling them to place a deposit on a new home. However, the Home Office began to be interested in Todiwala's work, as he was a foreign business owner without any investors. They would require monthly updates on the restaurant, and gave requirements which the business had to fulfil but eventually required them to find investors in order to stay in business. At around the same time, Michael Gottlieb, the owner of the Smolensky's restaurants in London, was attracted to Todiwala's cooking and offered to invest in a new restaurant with him. Café Spice Namasté was subsequently opened in 1995, although the Home Office would continue to pursue Todiwala for deportation.[4][8]

Cyrus Todiwala with actress Nina Wadia, at a charity event in 2012

He has since worked with the National Health Service to create ethnic menus for hospitals alongside Lloyd Grossman and the London East Training and Enterprise Council to create an Asian and Oriental cooking school with an onsite restaurant so that students can be trained in a real working kitchen.[9][10] However, the school closed after a few years following a change in funding.[11] While he was facing threats of deportation from the Home Office, he was also on the National Advisory Council for Education and Training Targets alongside former Home Secretary David Blunkett.[8]

In 2006, he opened Café’t’, a coffee shop / restaurant hybrid.[7] He launched a range of cooking sauces under the brand name Mr Todiwala's in 2010, which added to an existing range of pickles and chutneys.[12] In 2011, he launched a new restaurant named Mr Todiwala's Kitchen, which is located within the Hilton Hotel at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5.[8][13] He has appeared regularly at Taste Festivals, including those in London and in Dubai.[7]

As part of the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II, Todiwala cooked for the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at Kirishna Avanti school in Harrow. He cooked a version of Country Captain using rare breed mutton from North Ronaldsay in the Orkney Islands.[14] The dish has since been added to the menu at Café Spice Namasté.[15]

Awards

In 2000, Cyrus was awarded an MBE for services to the restaurant and catering industry.[16] He was subsequently awarded an OBE in the 2010 New Year's Honours List.[17] He was given a special award at the Craft Guild of Chefs awards in 2012 for "outstanding contribution to the industry".[18] He has subsequently become a judge for the The Catey Awards.[19]

He has been a long proponent for staff training, and earned an Investors in People for Café Spice Namasté.[20] He has found it sometimes hard to hire skilled Indian staff for his restaurants as he finds that not many are available in the UK.[11] This training approach also saw him awarded an Education and Training Catey award in 2005. Also in 2005, he won the special award at the Springboard Awards for Excellence.[21]

In 2009, he was given an honorary doctorate by London Metropolitan University.[22] He was also made an honorary professor of Thames Valley University and a Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London.[4] He was also named in the foodie section of the Evening Standard's list of London's one thousand most influential people in 2010. This saw him listed alongside other chefs such as Gordon Ramsay, Heston Blumenthal and Jamie Oliver.[23] He was first listed in Who's Who in 2011.[2]

Television and radio work

Cyrus regularly appears on cooking television shows such as BBC One's Saturday Kitchen, UKTV Food's Market Kitchen,[9] ITV's Daybreak and Channel 4's Drop Down Menu.[2] On radio, he has appeared in slots on channels such as the BBC Radio stations Radio 4, Radio 5 Live, and the BBC World Service.[9]

This summer, Cyrus will partner with Tony Singh when they present their own cookery show on BBC Two, The Incredible Spice Men: Todiwala And Singh.[24]

He has also appeared of "Britain's Natural World: Unnatural History of London" discussing his love of British birds.

Personal life

Cyrus is married to Pervin. The two met at the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai. He was assistant manager, and she was undergoing work experience whilst studying. They have two sons together, and it was Pervin's idea for the family to move to the UK in 1991.[8] Todiwala is a Parsi, a community hailing from Persia having settled in Southern Gujarat. The Parsis fled Persia to escape persecution from Muslim invaders, and they settled among the Koli Hindu people of Southern Gujarat.[25]

He aims to use sustainable materials in his restaurants, including agriculture.[8] Todiwala believes in the medicinal effects of spices. He would phone his father in India to look up details of spices in a book written in Gujarati. After his father died at the age of 97, the book passed into his care but he has since found the language too difficult to read clearly.[26] While he states that his favourite type of cuisine is Parsi, he will eat anything although aubergines give him indigestion.[5]

References

  1. ↑ "TODIWALA, Cyrus Rustom". Who's Who 2012. Retrieved 24 August 2012.  (subscription required)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Cyrus Todiwala". The Master Chefs of Great Britain. Retrieved 24 August 2012. 
  3. ↑ Todiwalla, Cyrus (6 May 2012). "Soul Food: Cyrus Todiwala on caramelised chapatis". Stella. Retrieved 24 August 2012. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Cyrus Todiwala". Greater London Authority. Retrieved 24 August 2012. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Afiya, Amanda (4 March 2011). "Chef Revelations – Cyrus Todiwala". Caterer and Hotelkeeper. Retrieved 24 August 2012. 
  6. ↑ "Hot Todi". The Mercury. 17 July 2009. Retrieved 24 August 2012.  (subscription required)
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Anderson, Chris (9 November 2008). "Cyrus Todiwala". Time Out Dubai. Retrieved 24 August 2012. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 Kühn, Kerstin (23 December 2011). "New tricks from the Todiwalas". Caterer and Hotelkeeper. Retrieved 24 August 2012. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 "Cyrus Todiwalla". Good Food Channel. Retrieved 24 August 2012. 
  10. ↑ Nichols, Michelle (19 December 2001). "TV chef's hospital food given a grilling by critic". The Scotsman. Retrieved 24 August 2012.  (subscription required)
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Lander, Nicholas (28 March 2008). "Indian Chefs". Financial Times. Retrieved 24 August 2012.  (subscription required)
  12. ↑ Lane, Diane (10 May 2010). "Cyrus Todiwala launches a range of cooking sauces". Product Junkie. Retrieved 24 August 2012. 
  13. ↑ "Mr. Todiwala’s Kitchen". Café Spice Namasté. Retrieved 24 August 2012. 
  14. ↑ Stanford, Janie (30 March 2012). "Cyrus Todiwala cooks for the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh". Caterer and Hotelkeeper. Retrieved 24 August 2012. 
  15. ↑ "A’la carte". Café Spice Namasté. Retrieved 24 August 2012. 
  16. ↑ "Cyrus Todiwala". BBC Food. Retrieved 24 August 2012. 
  17. ↑ "Honours List: Order of the British Empire, OBE (names L-Z)". The Independent. 31 December 2009. Retrieved 24 August 2012. 
  18. ↑ Kühn, Kerstin (14 June 2012). "Cyrus Todiwala receives special award at Craft Guild of Chefs Awards". Caterer and Hotelkeeper. Retrieved 24 August 2012. 
  19. ↑ "Cateys 2012: Education and Training Award – David Cochrane". Caterer and Hotelkeeper. 6 July 2012. Retrieved 24 August 2012. 
  20. ↑ Withers, Malcolm (8 July 2002). "Supporting staff is hot item on the Cafe menu". Evening Standard. Retrieved 24 August 2012.  (subscription required)
  21. ↑ Kühn, Kerstin (1 November 2005). "Todiwala wins top industry award". Caterer and Hotelkeeper. Retrieved 24 August 2012. 
  22. ↑ Stagg, James (4 December 2009). "Cyrus Todiwala awarded honorary doctorate degree". Caterer and Hotelkeeper. Retrieved 24 August 2012. 
  23. ↑ "London's 1000 most influential people 2010: Foodies". Evening Standard. 15 November 2010. Retrieved 24 August 2012. 
  24. ↑ "The Incredible Spice Men: Todiwala And Singh". 
  25. ↑ Roy, Amit (11 March 2011). "Zoroastrianism gets endowment". Eastern Eye. Retrieved 24 August 2012.  (subscription required)
  26. ↑ Doyle, Christine (18 May 2004). "Hot, healthy – and healing". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 24 August 2012. 

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