Aktar Islam is tired of people asking him why he’s opening a restaurant in London. “I don't know why people ask me that because, why not?” the chef and owner of Birmingham’s two Michelin-starred Opheem asks Broadsheet. “People in London don’t like Indian food? People in London don’t like restaurants?”
It’s a city the Great British Menu and Masterchef star has always been drawn to. “London is part of the country that I was born and brought up in. It’s a part of the country that I spent a lot of time in; a part of the country I’ve got a lot of friends in. I spent my teenage years in the East End.”
Islam’s latest project Oudh 1722 opens on May 1 in Borough. Spread over three floors of a Victorian building on Union Street, the restaurant is an ode to Awadhi cuisine, a style of food shaped in the royal courts of northern India from the year 1722.
“It celebrates a very important time in the development of Indian cuisine,” says Islam. “[In] that region [from] 1722 onwards was essentially what you’d regard as the Renaissance of Indian cuisine … we European chefs hold French cuisine in high regard, and in India the same applies to Awadhi cuisine.”
Colourful, intricate, and beautiful, Awadhi dishes require the utmost finesse. “It was basically the height of sophistication when it came to the kebab and different types of sauces and gravies,” says Islam. “Alongside poetry and art, everything developed at that time – when the Nawabs [rulers] pulled away from the Mughal Empire and the culture developed independently. It’s a great melting pot of Persian influences, Turkish influences, and the local Hindu traditions as well.”
While much of the Indian food that dominates the UK sits in the “faster, more casual, more street food-y” camp, Islam says Awadhi cooking is at the opposite end of the spectrum. “It’s more about time and patience, and giving the spices the opportunity to develop and evolve in a marinade or sauce,” he says. Heat, he stresses, is not the point.
The experience will be markedly different from his Birmingham restaurant. “With Opheem, we’re very progressive, looking forward and almost steering the path for the development and the next iteration of Indian food. Whereas what I’m doing with Oudh is celebrating antiquity and tradition, and a culture that defined an entire region.”
Split into shorba (soups), naashta (light bites), gilawat (minced kebabs), kebabs, dum (steamed dishes sealed with pastry), curries and sabzi (vegetables, broadly), much of the relatively short à la carte menu is prepared using dum pukht, the traditional low-flame cooking technique that gently builds depth of flavour over time.
Fluffy, intricately layered oxtail and aged-basmati biryani sits alongside malai murgh chicken (a dish of yoghurt-marinated chicken in a cream- and masala-based sauce), slow-cooked ox cheek and bone marrow curry, and a luxuriously rich and sweet yet sour machhli qaliya curry made with daily-changing fish.
Islam says the lamb and mushroom gilawat kebabs are a personal highlight – particularly because they’re very different from the robust, charred skewers many of us are used to. “It’s super smooth – almost like a spiced pâté – which is then turned into a kebab,” he says. “That kebab doesn’t have any bite. It’s all designed to be eaten effortlessly.”
The chef is also keen to showcase the joy of soup. First up: lamb or morel mushrooms with peas, asparagus and wild garlic. “People often think soups are not sexy, but I think they show a lot of skill, so they are going to be an important part of what we do.”
Would he like another nod from the Michelin man? “Nobody wants to say, ‘yes I want a star,’” Islam says, laughing. “I respect the whole journey and when we’re ready I think we will [get a star] because I genuinely believe no one else in the world cooks [Indian food] like that. I think it will be very obvious in London as well – even though it is food that is familiar, it’ll be totally unique.”
Otherwise, he is keen to keep the experience fairly low-key “I’ve always been quite an understated individual,” says Islam. “There’s no ceremony, there’s no pomp … we’re just a great restaurant.”
Oudh 1722 opens on May 1.
Oudh 1722
66 Union Street, SE1 1TD
Hours:
Wed to Sat midday–2.30pm, 5.30pm–9.45pm
Sun midday–5pm
