The Legacy

ABOUT KUNDAN LAL JAGGI

Kundan Lal Jaggi was a living legend and a culinary master of Tandoori cuisine and is often credited for making it popular all over the globe. Born and raised in a Punjabi-Hindu family in Peshawar, British India; as a young boy Kundan Lal Jaggi embarked on a journey of flavours and taste mastering Tandoori cuisine at a restaurant owned by Mokha Singh in Peshawar in the 1930’s.

During the aftermath of the partition of India in1947 which displacing many, Kundan Lal Jaggi a refugee lost everything he had and travelled to Delhi with an unflinching desire to succeed and serve a cuisine Delhi had not tasted before.

This experience also honed his patience and ability to focus. The only skill Kundan Lal Jaggi knew was how to cook, so he eventually founded a restaurant with two other partners at Daryaganj in New Delhi which went on to become a huge success and revived his life. These recipes have stood the test of time and were carefully preserved by Kundan Lal Jaggi before he passed away and gifted this legacy to his grandson.

AWARDS & MEDIA MENTIONS

THE DARYAGANJ TIMELINE

STORIES BEHIND THE ICONIC DISHES

THE BUTTER CHICKEN STORY

The most popular dish of North-Indian cuisine is an invention that arose out of sheer necessity. One fine night in 1947, Kundan Lal Jaggi was about to shut shop when a group of hungry guests arrived at the doorstep of his restaurant. The kitchen was nearly empty at that late hour, barring a few portions of their famous tandoori chicken.

A Bengali gentleman also dining at the restaurant suggested Kundan Lal Jaggi to make a gravy and add tandoori chicken into it so that everyone could have a hearty meal. Kundan Lal Jaggi was struck with an idea. After finding whatever he could in the kitchen, he created a gravy with tomatoes, fresh butter, and some spices. He then added pieces of cooked tandoori chicken to it, which is why the recipe is a dual recipe of tandoori chicken cooked first and then added to the makhani “butter” gravy.

The guests loved it, and didn’t leave a morsel. Kundan Lal Jaggi decided to put this dish permanently on his menu and christened it “Butter Chicken”. With Kundan Lal Jaggi’s culinary skills, the world’s fate of taste was certainly sealed.

THE DAL MAKHANI STORY

A Sikh gentleman and major food enthusiast, Sucha Singh dined at Kundan Lal Jaggi’s restaurant often in 1947. One day, he suggested to Kundan Lal Jaggi that he try doing something more exciting with the regular “Maa Ki Dal”, a popular dish in Indian kitchens for centuries.

After thinking it over, Kundan Lal Jaggi decided to slow cook black lentils on the tandoor with tomatoes, fresh white butter, and his choice of herbs and spices. He left it to slow simmer overnight. The next morning he discovered a luscious creamy dal.

Customers wanted more and more of this delicious invention. As it was made with butter or “makhan”, Kundan Lal Jaggi named it “Dal Makhani”. For vegetarian diners, the dish today is equivalent to majestic Butter Chicken.

THE ORIGINAL TANDORI CHICKEN STORY

This is a dish which was invented by Mokha Singh in the year 1920, but was made popular by Jaggi at his Restaurant in Daryaganj.

If any North Indian dish is as popular as butter chicken, it happens to be tandoori chicken. Althoug h Mokha Singh invented tandoori chicken at his restaurant in Peshawar, where Kundan Lal Jaggi worked, it was Jaggi who reinvented and popularised it.

The restaurateur continued the tradition when he opened up his restaurant in Delhi after migrating to the city during the Partition of 1947. It was there that the dish became well known.

Tandoori Chicken is the Base Dish of Butter Chicken, and the original Butter Chicken that was invented in 1947 was prepared with cooked Tandoori Chicken.

THE CHICKEN PAKORA STORY

Kundan Lal Jaggi introduced Chicken Pakora as a homespun alternative to the Western favorite, fried chicken. One monsoon evening, as guests enjoyed vegetable pakoras with masala chai, two British diners expressed how they missed their fried chicken back home.

Inspired, Jaggi took marinated chicken from the kitchen, coated it in a gram flour batter, fried it to perfection, and named it Chicken Pakora. The British patrons loved it, as did others, leading to its permanent place on the menu.

ABOUT THE OLD ICONIC RESTAURANT

This iconic restaurant started in the neighbourhood of Daryaganj in New Delhi in the year 1947. This period of Punjabi refugee’s migration to Delhi in India is Daryaganj’s major reference, this was the time when our society was working to create a progressive, inventive, and ambitious nation.

This restaurant delighted diners with dishes it had birthed and mastered. The objective was to make every meal better than the last, and to dig deeper to enhance the idea of culinary excellence upon which the philosophy of food is based. It was an astonishing establishment where signature inventions of tandoori cuisine were presented to the world.

This restaurant was known to be a landmark, a milestone on India’s culinary map. Undoubtedly, it became Delhi’s favourite dining space post-independence. This establishment welcomed royalty and elevated curry to a fine art.

The restaurant started the trend of family eating out together at a time when women were not comfortable going out. The signature inventions like Butter Chicken and Dal Makhani were savoured while Shakila Bano’s Qawwalis were performed live.

This restaurant enjoyed the patronage of several famous personalities of the world. Freedom fighter and the first Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru was in such awe of the food that he asked the restaurant team to set up a tandoor at his official residence. Staff from the restaurant would go to Nehru’s residence and cook piping hot naans and kababs for him and official state guests from all over the world. During the early 1990s, Kundan Lal and his partners decided to sell this restaurant, marking the end of a magnificent era.