About Us
Murad Chowdhury
The Taj Mahal, which is owned and managed by Murad Chowdhury, first opened its doors to a receptive but cautious public back in 1964. Being the first restaurant of its kind in Stevenage, our main problems were initially to get people to try foods that they had never tried before. It has been a long road to where we are today, but our patience has paid off! We are proud that our cuisine is accepted at the levels it is today. Indian food is now the most popular foreign cuisine in the country.
Zach Chowdhury
Murad's son, Zach, was diagnosed on the 24th June 2010 with a rare brain tumour called Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma and there is an online journal if you would like to keep up to date with what's going on.
If you would like to help fight pediatric brain tumour please consider making a donation to the University of Nottingham's Childrens's Brain Tumour Research Trust in honour of Zach (via JustGiving).
Thank you.
The Taj Mahal
Over the past forty years our style of food has always been an inspiration for other local outlets which is something we are proud of. Our responsibilities have led us to change the way our food is prepared over the years. Following changes in how we eat, our food is now prepared with modern living in mind.
We hope that if you do decide to order from us, you enjoy the food, since we really do try our best every time.
Our Philosophy
We are committed to providing the freshest and best Indian food in Stveenage. We use only the best quality spices and the highest quality of meats, fish and prawns, a lot of which is hand picked to make sure that our customers receive only the best.
We have the highest standards for food hygiene and our head of Kitchen has achieved the 'Advanced Food Hygiene' certification which reflects our commitment to providing safe food.
Tell Us What You Think
We have included a restaurant reviews section on our website so that you can let us know what you think of the service and food that we provide. If you can take the time to submit your review it would be gratefully appreciated.
Healthy Living
Modern living seems to be moving towards a healthier diet and lifestyle. Not only should we be reducing the amount of fat we eat and exercising more, there are more and more people thinking that salt intake has strong links to heart disease.
At the Taj we are committed to reducing these risks, by not only making sure that all animal fats are removed, but we try and reduce any oil that needs to be added, to cook the food, to a minimum. All oils used have zero-cholersterol and we do not use any ghee (the worst of all kinds of fat). In addition to this we have drastically reduced the amount of salt that we use in any of our food as well as items like food colouring. In fact, we have stopped using food colouring in a number of the dishes that we serve.
Since we do not use many of these flavour enhancing ingredients, as used by all the other Indian food outlets in Stevenage, you may think that our food may not taste of a high standard. This is not so; we get all our flavours by skill of blending the right spices and knowing how to cook them properly. An art in itself.
A Brief History of Indian Food in Britain
The history of Indian food in Britain is now almost four hundred years old.
The story starts with the arrival in Surat of the English merchants from the East India Company in 1608 and then with more success in 1612. As the influence of the British in India grew, so too did the interest of Indian food back in Britain.
The first appearance of curry on a menu was at the Coffee House in Norris Street, Haymarket, London in 1773.This lead to a gradual increase of Indian food nationwide in Britain.
To date, over half of the Indian restaurants are owned and managed by Bangladeshis, these being mainly located in the south of England. In Birmingham, however,the situation is different with the number of Bangladeshis restaurateurs decreasing and Pakistani owners increasing. By the time you reach Bradford and Manchester, the restaurateurs are almost entirely Pakistani, Kashmiri and North Indian. Once you reach Glasgow, the concentration is almost entirely Punjabi, as it is in the Southall and Wembley areas of London.
