Where the Chefs Eat asks your favourite chefs for their top restaurants in cities across the world. For this edition, we sit down with Vivek Singh
The Cinnamon Club, a restaurant utterly inconspicuous on the outside, reminds me a little of Narnia. Located on a fairly unremarkable street along the edge of Westminster, there are just two simple plaques outside that let you know you’re at the right place; the Grade II-listed former library gives no external hint of the glories to be found inside. But walk through those doors, and you’re in the cosiest of culinary havens. This is an Indian restaurant that has redefined Indian food as we know it in the UK. When in season, game can dominate the menu; innovative methods of cooking have pushed boundaries while redefining classic dishes, and you’ll be hard pushed to find a traditional curry. I recently met the man behind the magic: Vivek Singh.
He tells me, earnestly, that he knew “in his soul” that he wanted to open an Indian restaurant and keep cooking Indian food, “because it’s the one thing I know, but I started to get itchy feet. I wanted to push the boundaries, deconstruct traditional dishes, and present them in new ways. The only way I could reinvent things was to have my own restaurant, and that’s what really made me take a leap.” He laughs about the bravery that often comes with youth: “I should’ve been intimidated, but I wasn’t. I think when you’re young, and you’re foolish, you care very little.” A move overseas ensued, and he decided to open in Westminster. Having spent less than 14 weeks in England and eaten at fewer than 10 restaurants in London, he opened the doors of The Cinnamon Club in March 2001.
“It’s immensely satisfying having people who still want to come in after 25 years, especially in the world we live in today. The Cinnamon Club has been about Indian dishes married with local British produce since day one, and I’ve loved every moment. People say restaurants are tough, but compared to what? Everything is tough, isn’t it?”
Singh faced a lot of cynicism when he opened with relatively high prices. “There was a lot of love and affection for Indian food and curry at that time,” he tells me. “But a lot of people told me I was mad because I opened with a menu that charged £16 for one course when you could get an entire meal in another Indian restaurant for that amount of money. People thought I was crazy, especially as I had 230 seats to fill.” But fill it he did, and today, The Cinnamon Club is a beacon of the far more nuanced and regional Indian food found up and down the country.
