My London: Dishoom co-founder Kavi Thakrar’s Shoreditch
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00What I hope has happened in the last 15 years is that Londoners have realised that Indian food is much more than they may have thought it was.
00:14Hi, I'm Katrina and I'm in Shoreditch today to meet Kavi, the co-founder of Dishoom.
00:18I want to find out where he likes to go out in this area and there's no queue outside right now, so shall we go inside and meet him?
00:25We started Dishoom in 2010 and here we are in 2024, 14 years later, still bringing the Bombay food and the Bombay culture that we get excited about,
00:36that we love sharing with people, to London, to other parts of the UK.
00:41Ultimately, Dishoom and our restaurants are rooted in Bombay, the people, the food, the culture that really makes us happy.
00:47It's nothing fancy, it's just a comfort food that makes people smile, it warms our hearts and warms our bellies.
00:52So, sitting here 14 years later, looking back, it's really extraordinary, I think, to see how our team has grown and how they've fallen in love with Bombay
01:02and our guests keep coming back for the awesome food and drink.
01:05Oh look, here we've got some chai. There you go, I think you ordered an oat chai, right?
01:09Thank you so much, perfect. That's for me? Thank you so much, I appreciate it.
01:16Here we go. Nice hot drink. Should I cheers it? Cheers to chai.
01:24Nice hot chai.
01:25Everyone is obsessed with the bacon naan roll. How did that come up?
01:31Good question. So, a big part of our inspiration, like I said, is the comfort food of Bombay.
01:39In Bombay, breakfast is a thing, as it is in many parts of the world, but breakfast is typically eggs, bread, could be keema, mince, chai.
01:49But we felt if there was a place rooted in Bombay culture, a cafe from Bombay, that opened in London, they would be really in tune with what their guests would want.
02:01In London, we're known for bacon sandwiches, amongst other things, but that's what people love here for breakfast.
02:06Why don't we do our version of a bacon sandwich, which is a bacon naan roll?
02:09Ultimately, I think we have an unfair advantage because our naans are cooked to order.
02:14I can't think of another bacon sandwich in the world where the bread is baked fresh alongside the bacon that's cooked fresh.
02:21So, it's a super delicious, freshly prepared product. I think that's one of the reasons people find it so delicious, because it's fresh bread and fresh bacon.
02:29I feel like it's become the official hangover food. For the world. For London, yeah, it just is.
02:35Even if you're hungover or not, it's just a really lovely way to start the day. I love it. I love it.
02:41I think I may have eaten more bacon naan rolls than anybody else in the world, and not all of them were on a hangover.
02:50So, you've got strong ties to the area. Yes. Can you go and show me some of your favourite spots?
02:55Go to Layla's. It's really good. It's been here for maybe 20 years, so definitely long before we showed up here.
03:03I can tell you more about it when we get there, but I think you'll like it.
03:06So, they've got a milk-flavoured soft serve today. Why don't we do a couple of those?
03:11Let's go and get some soft serve.
03:19That is quite milky. Let's walk.
03:22One thing that we were really pleased with, or really fortunate with, I guess, is that at the time, when you think about 2010 in London,
03:31we were only in London at the time, you had curry houses, which are fantastic, and I love curry houses,
03:36but people associated that with Indian food, or kind of these higher-end Michelin-starred chef-led places.
03:45And neither of those things, and I love them both, and I love going to curry houses, and I love going to fancy restaurants, obviously,
03:51but neither of those places felt particularly Bombay, or particularly Indian.
03:55And so, what I think we were able to do is capture Indian culture, Indian food,
04:01in a way that second, third-generation Indians in London could almost take ownership of,
04:08and not necessarily be proud of, but could relate to, in a way that they hadn't been able to before, certainly for a long time.
04:15And so, I think what makes me extremely happy is that when you see people from India coming off the plane,
04:23and coming straight to this showroom from Bombay, and they're like, you can get vada pav there, you can get chai there.
04:28I think what they're relating to is the environment, the culture, the way we look after guests, the way we look after each other,
04:35and the fact that you get all of this wonderful comfort food in one place, which you don't in Bombay, right?
04:39You have to go all over the city to get all of that.
04:41So, I think, for me, that was a moment of reflection, that, hold on a minute, we're doing something here that we're extremely proud of,
04:48but it looks like other people are proud of it as well.
04:51And the other cool thing was that you get non-Indian people bringing Indian people, saying, look, I found this thing,
04:55and it represents Indian culture in a way that I think you're going to love because you're Indian.
05:00So, we had sharing both ways between Indian culture and non-Indian culture.
05:04I wanted to ask you about this because there have been some criticisms of Dishoom,
05:07kind of packaging, kind of working class comfort food to a white British audience.
05:12I want to ask you, who is your audience and where do you think Dishoom sits culturally in the UK?
05:17That's a great question. So, I would definitely not agree with people that say we're trying to cater to a certain type of person.
05:25I think what we're trying to do is really transport you to a time and place.
05:30So, we've just been in Shoreditch. We want to take you, the minute you walk into the veranda,
05:34to some other place and time for the short time you're eating in our restaurant.
05:38And the food, we have fantastic chefs that spend a lot of time in Bombay.
05:42We're really proud of the food we serve. We're not trying to dumb it down for anybody.
05:46We're not trying to cater it to a certain type of person.
05:48So, I think what goes along with that is that you'll sometimes come into one of our restaurants and you'll find groups of tourists.
05:54You'll also find an Indian family celebrating a birthday.
05:57You'll also find a person eating by themselves or you might find celebrities.
06:02So, it really does cater to everybody across many different backgrounds and that's what I actually love about what we do.
06:10Everyone is always welcome and you can come and have a cup of chai or you can come and have a blowout meal
06:17and we'll look after you in the same way and hopefully you'll have an equally wonderful time.
06:20Let's go.
06:25Growing up in London, what were your three favourite Indian restaurants?
06:29So, my favourite family style restaurant, I love the Jay Indian restaurant in Kilburn.
06:34It's around the corner from me. South Indian family but lots of delicious food from all over the country.
06:40I love Lahore Kebab House for just meat and beer. Bring your own, nice and easy.
06:44No frills but really delicious.
06:46And for higher end, fancier, I love BB.
06:49So, Chet does a great job. The food, the presentation, the quality, the sourcing.
06:53He really cares about what's going on the plate and everything's delicious.
06:56So, those would be my three go-to and then if those are all full, come to the ship.
07:04Right, Dom's Subs, here we come.
07:07You're veggie.
07:08I'm veggie.
07:09I'm going to have a spicy Italian.
07:11Is that your go-to?
07:12Yeah, we get Dom's a lot in the office.
07:15Very spicy. You will know that you ate me tomorrow morning.
07:22Appreciate it. Thank you so much.
07:26Look at that.
07:31So, what's in yours?
07:33Lots of Italian meat.
07:35I'm going to have a spicy Italian.
07:37Is that your go-to?
07:38Yeah, we get Dom's a lot in the office.
07:40So, what's in yours?
07:42Lots of Italian meat and then like a Thai chili sauce.
07:49Wow, mine's got loads of coriander.
07:51I've got parma ham, I've got cheese, mortadella, pickled jalapenos it looks like
07:59and then that chili sauce on the top. It's a proper sandwich.
08:03Who's the most famous person you've welcomed into the ship?
08:07Oh, we've had a lot of people come over the years.
08:11Beyonce brought her mum.
08:13What did she order?
08:14I wasn't there. Hopefully everything.
08:17We've got so many people from all walks of life, honestly.
08:20And that's, again, I go back to that.
08:21That's what I love about what we do.
08:23Is that an unnamed, very famous A-list actress
08:28showed up at our shortage restaurant once and there was an hour and a half queue.
08:32And our team said, great, it's an hour and a half queue.
08:34And she stood in the back of the queue and came in and had her dinner.
08:37And I just love that, that, you know, everyone's treated the same.
08:41So that was quite cool.
08:42That is very nice.
08:43It's good to know, it's good to know.
08:48Cross the road, grab a drink, actually have a cocktail.
08:51When does the answer to that ever know?
08:58Okay, so we changed the menu recently.
09:01We work around the process that is quite delicate on flavours.
09:06So our drinks are quite low ABV, quite beginning of the week, if I can say that.
09:11It's like aperitif time.
09:13So all of them are quite delicate in terms of flavours, in terms of ABV.
09:18Busy going about it.
09:20Yeah, that one sounded good.
09:21And the Martini Bay sounded good.
09:23Yeah, I like the sound of both of those.
09:24Should we share those two?
09:25Done.
09:26There you go.
09:27A Mizu-Mizu and a Martini Bay.
09:29And a Martini Bay.
09:30Amazing.
09:31Easy life.
09:32Easy life.
09:46Give that a go.
09:47Apparently that's a low ABV Martini.
09:49Yeah, that's what.
09:50I want to know how you think people's, British people's perspectives on Indian food has changed over the years.
09:56Back in 2010, people would probably say, if you asked them India, they'd probably say curry house, maybe the Taj Mahal, Days of the Raj, cricket and Bollywood.
10:04There may not be many other things that they would identifiably think of as Indian.
10:08Whereas what I think we've been part of at The Shulm is introducing people in London to a bit more rooted in India, Indian food.
10:18So our breakfast is really, really popular and really busy.
10:21And we're serving people keema and a curry, which is a spice scrambled egg, omelettes.
10:26Obviously, we have a bacon naan roll.
10:28And I think all of a sudden people realize, hold on a minute, I can have an Indian breakfast that isn't associated with a curry house or a Michelin star restaurant.
10:36And isn't in this kind of stereotypes I might have in my head.
10:39And then lunch, people didn't really go to Indian restaurants for lunch.
10:43And more and more people are now going to Indian restaurants for lunch.
10:45So I think what I hope has happened in the last 15 years is that Londoners have realized that Indian food is much more than they may have thought it was.
10:56And it can be different things, different people, different parts of the day.
10:59And it doesn't have to be just be really heavy and then regret it the next day.
11:04And it's not all full of cream either.
11:07And it's fresh and vibrant.
11:08When you go to Bombay, it's lemon, garlic, ginger, lime, chili.
11:15It's all really fresh in your face flavors, not the more regal flavors like cardamom and saffron and cream.
11:23That exists in Indian cuisine, but that's not all Indian cuisine is.
11:27So I hope that people are a bit more enjoying of the variety that Indian food can offer.
11:36Indian Food