Veerasawmy, Indian cookery for use in all countries 1936 EDWARD PALMER

Veerasawmy, E. P. (d. i. Edward Palmer). Indian cookery for use in all countries. London, Herbert Joseph (1936). 8°. 231 S. OLn. mit illustr. OU.

Sehr seltene erste Ausgabe des wichtigsten und erfolgreichsten Kochbuchs der indischen Küche. – Der englisch-indische Offizier E. Palmer eröffnete 1926 in der Regent Street in London das Veeraswamy Restaurant. Es ist das älteste noch heute existierende indische Restaurant. 2016 wurde das Veeraswamy mit einem Michelin Stern ausgezeichnet; die Inspektoren des Michelin Guide begründeten ihre Entscheidung: „It may have opened in 1926 but this celebrated Indian restaurant just keeps getting better and better! The classic dishes from across the country are prepared with considerable care by a very professional kitchen. The room is awash with colour and it’s run with great charm and enormous pride“. – „The Veeraswamy Restaurant was established by Edward Palmer in 1926 in Regent Street. Palmer was a retired Indian Army officer and in 1924-5 had run the Indian section at the British Empire Exhibition, Wembley, where his company, E. P. Veeraswamy & Co., Indian Food Specialists, sold spices, chutneys and curry pastes at the café. Palmer’s grandfather, William Palmer, was married to an Indian woman (who may have been named Veeraswamy) and founded the banking house Palmer & Co. in Hyderabad in the late eighteenth century. Edward Palmer’s great-grandfather also served in India and married the Indian princess Begum Fyze Baksh. Veeraswamy’s waiters were imported from India and the food was firmly Raj: duck vindaloo and Madras curry. One of its employees was Nawab Ali, who went on to found other Indian restaurants throughout the UK. It catered to Anglo-Indians, retired civil servants, fashionable Londoners, and royalty such as the Prince of Wales and the Prince of Denmark. The British tradition of drinking beer with a curry is said to have originated at Veeraswamy’s when the Prince of Denmark visited and decided to send a barrel of Carlsberg to the restaurant every Christmas thereafter. In 1935, the restaurant was sold to Sir William Steward, who ran the place for forty years. Veeraswamy’s is still in existence today“ (Making Britain, The Open University). – Schutzumschlag mit Randläsuren, sonst sehr gutes Exemplar.