Anglo-Indian Cuisine In Spotlight For King Charles' Coronation As Royals Choose "Coronation Chicken" For Big Lunches

The preparations for King Charles III's coronation, which is scheduled to take place on May 6 at Westminster Abbey, are going on in full swing in the United Kingdom. Countrywide celebrations, including parades, will be organised over the coronation weekend during which the 74-year-old monarch will officially be crowned in a grand ceremony. In keeping with the tradition, King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla have also personally chosen a signature dish - coronation quiche - and shared the recipe for the same. 

"Introducing... Coronation Quiche! Chosen personally by Their Majesties, The King and The Queen Consort have shared a recipe in celebration of the upcoming Coronation Big Lunches taking place up and down the country," The Royal Family wrote in an Instagram post. 

Take a look below: 

According to news agency PTI, with King Charles' coronation ceremony, there is also a growing buzz around the historic milestone with a focus on Anglo-Indian cuisine in the UK as well. 

"Charles' Coronation is a good time to talk about the merging of cultures and how food has been shaped through this intermingling of two cultures," said Indian culinary historian and author Anoothi Vishal, who is exploring the royal antecedents of Indian food in Britain that date back to King Charles' ancestor Queen Victoria in the 19th century. 

"Curry, as we have come to know Indian food here in the UK, really gained in fashion at the height of the Empire with Victoria putting it on her menus and the aristocracy adopting it. Curry became stylish, and from then on, we see this whole stereotype of Indian food really being reduced in many ways to the curry," said Camellia Panjabi, the owner of the UK's oldest Indian restaurant Veeraswamy. 

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Further, Ms Panjabi noted that the result of the historic influence is visible in the choice of "Coronation Chicken" as the dish to mark the crowning of Queen Elizabeth II 70 years ago in 1953. 

"We talk about chicken tikka masala and curry houses, but essentially the interaction between Indian and British food has two phases - it's the 75 years before India's independence and 75 years after independence," said Camellia Panjabi. 

"The one dish that is believed to be Indian and drunk all over India is Masala Chai, which we have recently imported into this country as a delicacy. But there was no tea in India, it was introduced by the British after a dispute with the Chinese authorities," Ms Panjabi said, highlighting the two-way culinary exchanges.

She also went on to highlight the major changes that have taken place in the cuisine of both countries over the years, with Indian restaurants in Britain being elevated to a fine-dining to celebrate not only a royal milestone but also the journey of Indian food across both nations.