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What is a tandoor?

posted on Tuesday, August 19, 2008 11:13 PM

The tandoor is a clay oven used by IndiaOrganix chefs to cook meat and bake bread. Essentially, it is also used for roasting our whole spices before grinding them into paste.

The tandoor came, originally from the Middle East with the name deriving from the Babylonian word ‘tinuru’ 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 as the tandoor.

The first tandoor in India in a restaurant is said to have been in the Kashmiri Moti Mahal in New Delhi in 1948.

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. Mr Kaul had taken the tandoor to America for the Worlds Fair in 1964. 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 in London 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.

The first evidence of a tandoor in Glasgow is not until 1978 but is likely to have been some years earlier.

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