Cyrus Todiwala’s cooking brings Indian traditions into conversation with ingredients and dishes familiar in Britain. The Mumbai-born chef became known in the UK through Café Spice Namasté, the London restaurant he established in 1995, and through recipes that range from Parsi dhansak to game pies and masala roasts. His career joins restaurant cooking with books and television, giving audiences ways to encounter Indian food beyond the dining room.

Learning Parsi cooking

Todiwala was born and raised in Mumbai. His early culinary training was with Emmy Fernandes, under whom he explored traditional Parsi cuisine. That grounding in a particular regional tradition became part of his work as a chef: rather than treating Indian cooking as a single, uniform category, his repertoire draws on distinct dishes and flavour traditions.

After moving to the United Kingdom, he began combining his culinary heritage with local cuisine. The meeting of those influences is evident in the dishes associated with his cooking. Dhansak, a Parsi preparation, brings lamb together with lentils, vegetables and spices. Goan-spiced king prawns and wild boar vindaloo draw on other Indian culinary references, while seasonal game pies and masala roasts bring British ingredients into the mix.

Café Spice Namasté

In 1995, Todiwala established Café Spice Namasté in London. The restaurant became the best-known setting for his cooking and for his approach to combining Indian flavours with British produce and dishes. Its menu, as described in accounts of his work, ranges from recognisable regional preparations to adaptations that pair Indian seasoning with ingredients associated with British cooking.

That combination can be seen in the contrast between a Parsi dhansak and a seasonal game pie, or in the use of masala in a roast. These are not simply Indian dishes placed alongside British ones: they reflect Todiwala’s interest in how ingredients and methods from each tradition can work together. The result gives diners a route into Indian regional cooking while keeping British produce and familiar meal forms in view.

Beyond the restaurant

Todiwala’s work has also reached readers and television audiences. His books include Mr Todiwala’s Bombay: Recipes and Memories from India, which combines recipes with reflections on his culinary heritage. He has appeared on BBC television’s Saturday Kitchen, taking his cooking beyond the restaurant and into the homes of viewers.

His recognition includes appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2010 for services to the hospitality industry. The account of his career also notes charitable activity and an interest in culinary education. Claims that he has had a broad influence on sustainability, including through the use of locally sourced organic ingredients, are less specifically documented; they do not define the case for his importance here.

Why Cyrus Todiwala deserves a place in British Legacy

Todiwala’s place in British Legacy rests on a specific contribution to the country’s food culture: he has brought Parsi and other Indian culinary traditions into a British restaurant setting without reducing them to a single idea of Indian cuisine. Café Spice Namasté gave that approach a London home from 1995, while dishes such as dhansak, Goan-spiced prawns, game pies and masala roasts show the range of the cooking. The British connection is not incidental to his story; it is expressed in the ingredients, restaurant context and audiences with which his work engages.

His books and television appearances have extended that encounter beyond the restaurant, offering readers and viewers another way to learn about Indian food and its regional traditions. His OBE for services to hospitality recognises a career in that field. Together, the restaurant, the published recipes and the television work make Todiwala’s contribution concrete: he has helped bring Indian cooking into public life in Britain while making space for British ingredients within his own repertoire. That exchange is a lasting and distinctly culinary part of the country’s diverse food heritage.