Cyrus Todiwala

Cyrus Rustom Todiwala OBE, DL, (born 16 October 1956), is an Indian chef proprietor of Café Spice Namasté and a celebrity television chef.

He trained at the Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces chain in India, and rose to become executive chef for eleven restaurants within those hotels.

He moved to the UK in 1991 with his family, and following some initial financial difficulties after taking over a restaurant, Michael Gottlieb provided investment funding, allowing Todiwala to open Café Spice Namasté in 1995, the restaurant for which he is best known.

He has subsequently launched a range of condiments and sauces called Mr Todiwala's, and a second restaurant called Mr Todiwala's Kitchen, which is located at the Hilton at Heathrow Airport near Terminal 5.

He moved to Australia in 1991, and moved to the United Kingdom with his family, having been invited to run a restaurant in Alie Street in London called Namasté, which Todiwala describes as having been "pretty lousy".

The owners of the restaurant went into financial difficulty despite critical acclaim for Todiwala's work.

Being faced with unemployment whilst on a work visa, he took over the restaurant with the help of his wife, Pervin.

With banks refusing to give him loans, he turned to family members to help support his restaurant.

They were given multiple small sums, but won a car in a competition and sold it, enabling them to place a deposit on a new home.

However, the Home Office began to be interested in Todiwala's work, as he was a foreign business owner without any investors.

At around the same time, Michael Gottlieb, the owner of 'Smolensky's' restaurants in London, wished to invest in a new Indian restaurant on E1's Prescott Street and approached The Cobra Good Curry Guide's website editor Pat Chapman seeking a chef.

Chapman, proposed Todiwala.

Café Spice Namasté opened in 1995, although the Home Office would continue to pursue Todiwala for deportation.

He has since worked with the National Health Service to create ethnic menus for hospitals alongside Loyd Grossman, and with the London East Training and Enterprise Council to create an Asian and Oriental cooking school with an onsite restaurant so that students could be trained in a real working kitchen.

However, the school closed after a few years following a change in funding.

While he was facing threats of deportation from the Home Office, he was also on the National Advisory Council for Education and Training Targets alongside former Home Secretary David Blunkett.

He was awarded an MBE in 2000, and an OBE in 2009.

He has also been awarded an honorary doctorate and been made an honorary professor.

In 2000, Todiwala was awarded an MBE for services to the restaurant and catering industry.

In 2006, he opened Café’t’, a coffee shop / restaurant hybrid.

He launched a range of cooking sauces under the brand name Mr Todiwala's in 2010, which added to an existing range of pickles and chutneys.

He was subsequently appointed an OBE in the 2010 New Year's Honours List.

In 2011, he launched a new restaurant named Mr Todiwala's Kitchen, which is located within the Hilton Hotel at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5.

He has appeared regularly at Taste Festivals, including those in London and in Dubai.

As part of the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II, Todiwala cooked for the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at Kirishna Avanti school in Harrow.

He cooked a version of Country Captain using rare breed mutton from North Ronaldsay in the Orkney Islands.

The dish has since been added to the menu at Café Spice Namaste.

In 2012, he cooked for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

He has appeared on numerous television and radio programmes, such as the BBC radio 1 Saturday Cook show.

Born and brought up in a Parsi family in Mumbai, India, he lived with his family in a house split into ten flats.

His father worked for the Automobile Association as Chief of Road Service for Western India.

Todiwala finished his schooling in Barnes School and then graduated from Sophia Shree B K Somani Polytechnic having studied Hotel Administration and Food Technology.

His first job was as a busboy.

He trained as a chef with Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces in India, eventually becoming Executive Chef for all of the chain's hotels in India, some eleven restaurants with 160 staff.

He was given a special award at the Craft Guild of Chefs awards in 2012 for "outstanding contribution to the industry".

He has subsequently become a judge for The Catey Awards.

He has long been a proponent of staff training, and earned an Investors in People for Café Spice Namasté.

In December 2014, after having established four premiere restaurants in London, Cyrus returned to India to establish The River Restaurant, his first restaurant in India, at the Acron Waterfront Resort in Baga on the banks of the Baga river in Goa.

In 2017 Todiwala became the Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST)'s first ever chef ambassador.

This role enables Todiwala to combine his interests in food and conservation.