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'It was there at the dawn of civilisation' The Punjab in India is known by many today as the 'home of the tandoor', a cooking method that has become known all over the world as the popularity of 'curry' has spread. Its history, however, actually goes back to the dawn of civilisation from where it spread from Arab countries to India and finally, the West. The tandoor in its simplest form is a large clay jar with an opening at the bottom for adding and removing fuel. It was used for bread baking where the dough was slapped onto the vertical wall to bake quickly by radiant heat and convection. It was usually made of good clay and shredded coir rope and, once complete, a paste of mustard oil, jaggery, yoghurt and ground spinach was rubbed on the inside to harden it up. In Afghanistan, the tandoor was usually built into the ground. Most homes were too poor to have their own so they prepared their own dough and took it to the tandoor bakery (the nanwaee) to be baked. A long notched stick called a chobe khat kept note of the number of breads baked for a household each day and totalled each week for payment. The word tandoor came originally from the Middle East with the name deriving from the Babylonian word ‘tinuru’ from the Semitic word nar meaning fire. Hebrew and Arabic then made it tannur then tandur in Turkey, Central Asia and, finally Pakistan and India, who made it famous worldwide. Understandably, many people assume the tandoor to be native to India as evidence exists of early tandoors around 3000 BC. The first evidence comes from early farming settlements of the time such as Umm Bubaghiyeh on the plains between the Rivers Tigris and Euphrates. It is here that the world’s first major civilization, the Sumerians, they of the legendary King-Hero Gilgamesh, appeared, introducing advances that were to shape the world. Metal worked tools had been known in several areas since 5000 B.C. and pottery from Iran to the East Mediterraean Basin since 6000BC and Sumer built up the infrastructure of civilzation including cuniform writing by 3500 B.C. in ‘fabulous’ Eridu. The Sumerians of Mesopotamia cultivated dates and, later, cereals as the land improved. Sheep and cattle were kept and donkeys ridden. They were the earliest people to use the wheel and, gradually, city states grew up and trade spread as far as India. India was first populated 250,000 years ago but the first major civilization was the Harappans who occupied the Indus Valley where Baluchistan was a farming community from 3500 B.C. By 3000 B.C. turmeric, cardamom, pepper and mustard were harvested in India. The Harappans who occupied Harappa and Mohenjodero in the Indus Valley, were of mixed stock, somewhat larger in stature than either the Sumerians or Egyptians denying theories that they were an extension of those communities. They had club wheat, barley, sheep and goats from the Iranian Plateau and cotton from Southern Arabia or North East Africa but were held back by their reliance on flood waters due to general lack of knowledge of irrigation. Sumer had trade links with the Indus Valley via Hindu Kush by 3000 B.C. introducing the tandoor amongst many other things and by sea from 2500 B.C., thus linking the Harappans with both Sumerians and Egyptians, where cumin, anise and cinnamon were used for embalming by 2500 B.C The first tandoor in India in a restaurant is said to have been in the Kashmiri Moti Mahal in New Delhi in 1948 and, indeed, Ranjit Mathrani of Chutney Mary and Veeraswamy remembers eating tandoori food there in 1951 at the tender age of eight. Several restaurants have claimed to be the first to have a tandoor in Britain. Initial research suggested the man responsible was, in fact, Mahendra Kaul who started the excellent Gaylord group and it was The Gaylord in Mortimer Street who advertised it in a Palladium Theatre programme in 1966. Mr Kaul had taken the tandoor to America for the Worlds Fair in 1964 then loaned it and his staff to a restaurant in Whitfield Street, London that no longer exists, before starting the Gaylord. He is still a partner in Chor Bizarre in London making him one of the most experienced people still working in the industry. Recently viewed archived documents at Veeraswamy indicate, however, a tandoor in use much earlier, in 1959 and so, this famous restaurant seems to have been responsible for the earliest introduction of tandoori style dishes to the UK, although it would be some ten years and more before the tandoor became widely used in Britain. If you had visited Veerawamy's, as it was then called, in December 1959 you could have enjoyed Chicken Tandoori (allow 15-20 minutes) for the princely sum of ten shillings and sixpence. Nowadays the tandoor is in use all over Britain and wherever the Indian restaurant industry thrives, as well as its countries of origin and commercial tandoors now have cemented brick walls and large commercial units are of iron. Many Pakistani and Kashmiri restaurants in Britain continue to use the tandoor for breads only, preferring to grill their kebabs whilst others have expanded the uses of the versatile tandoor to give that special flavour to meat and fish. One mystery still remains. Who introduced the word 'Tandoori' into restaurant names in Britain such that in the year 2002, a large percentage still use the word in their restaurant name? It certainly wasn't either of the two pioneers Veeraswamy or Gaylord, as they are not known as 'Tandoori' restaurants, so who was the first? Any suggestions? ________________________
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