Patna man began UK's first Indian eatery and first book in English by any Indian

LONDON: Who opened the first Indian restaurant in Britain? It was Dean Mahomet, a resident of Patna who moved to England in 1784. Born in 1759, Dean joined the East Indian Company and rose to the rank of subedar . He also claims to have introduced the art of champi shampooing to England.

If Dean Mahomet was the first, the latest to open an Indian restaurant is Mashood Siddiqi, a consultant physician who has opened the 'Mayur' restaurant in Liverpool.

Dean Mahomet had sparked off a culinary trend in the 18th century that over the years has become a national obsession of Britain.

The story goes that Dean Mahomet and his "best friend", Captain Godfrey Baker, came to Britain in 1784 and started a new life in Ireland. He studied English and married Jane Daly, "a pretty Irish girl of respectable parentage".

He had several children and published a book with the title: "The Travels of Deam Mahomet, a Native of Patna in Bengal, Through Several Parts of India, While in the Service of the Honourable East India Company".

Mahomet moved to Portman Square in London where he joined the vapour bath owned by Sir Basil Cochrane. Here Mahomet added champi to the list of services offered.

In 1810 he established the Hindoostan Coffee House at 34 George Street, Portman Square, which was the first Indian restaurant by an Asian in Britain.

However, in 1812 he was forced to declare bankruptcy. After several trysts in his fortunes, he was appointed "Shampooing Surgeon" to king George IV. He died in 1851.

Sake Dean Mahomet (also Sake Dean Mahomed or, in Arabic, Shaykh Din Muhammad) (1759-1851) is thought to have been the first Indian to have written a book in the English language.

In 1814 he moved with his Irish wife, Jane, to Brighton. The couple opened the first shampooing vapour masseur bath in England, on the site now occupied by the Queen's Hotel. He described the treatment in a local paper as 'The Indian Medicated Vapour Bath (type of Turkish bath), a cure to many diseases and giving full relief when every thing fails; particularly Rheumatic and paralytic, gout, stiff joints, old sprains, lame less, aches and pains in the joints'.

This business was an immediate success and Dean Mahomet became known as "Dr Brighton". Hospitals referred patients to him and he was appointed as shampooing surgeon to both King George IV and William IV.

According to Pakistani literary critic Muneeza Shamsie, Sake Dean Mahomet began to lose prominence by the Victorian era and until recently was largely forgotten by history. She notes that he also authored the books Cases Cured and Shampooing Surgeon, Inventor of the Indian medicated Vapour and Sea Water Baths etc.

Modern renewal of interest in his writings followed after poet and scholar Alamgir Hashmi drew attention to this author in the 1970's and 1980's. Michael H. Fisher has written a book on Sheikh Dean Mahomet: The First Indian Author in English: Dean Mahomet in India, Ireland and England (Oxford University Press, Delhi - 1996).

On 29 September 2005 the City of Westminster unveiled a Green Plaque commemorating the opening of the Hindoostane Coffee House

By the late 1830s, however, his connection to the British royal family faded. King William's favor changed to other baths, making them more fashionable. Queen Victoria, despite Dean Mahomet's effusive expressions of loyalty, never graced his Baths or submitted herself to a bath or shampoo at his or Jane's hands. Ultimately, she found Brighton uncongenial, closed the Pavilion, stripped its furnishings, and sold it the year Dean Mahomet died (1851). Nevertheless, Dean Mahomet's transient entry into the circle of attendants on the royal family did much to draw the attention of society at large to him and his mode of treatment.