Cckney Crry

8216;8216;It8217;s all taken off very quickly,8217;8217; said Shavata when I hooked up with her at Harrods recently. 8216;8216;It was after I did the eyebrows for a senior Vogue editor that my name got around because she felt that a simple eyebrow tidy does the equivalent of a mini-facelift. You instantly look fresher and younger.8217;8217; Nothing like her quick wax-and-tweeze.

Slow Roast, Bangla style
8216;8216;London now has as cosmopolitan a choice of restaurant offerings as New York, but ironically, British cooking does not feature as strongly here in the way that American food does over there. I aim to change that. By working with the best of British food producers, we aim to generate a greater feeling of pride in British cooking and see that it takes its rightful place on the international map.8217;8217;

You would think the observation comes from a traditional Brit, possibly a blue-blooded aristo and definitely a patriot, right? Wrong.

This is Bangladeshi-born restaurant-success story owner Iqbal Wahhab. Having done his bit to spice up the Bangladeshi spread at UK curry houses 8212; and changing the pub night out for a certain section of society as 10 pints followed by a vindaloo 8212; he then created one of the most successful Indian restaurants in London, the Cinnamon Club at Westminster.

8216;8216;I don8217;t like getting bored so I needed another challenge,8217;8217; says the LSE graduate. 8216;8216;And what could be a greater challenge than bringing that element of success to British cooking8217;s reputation?8217;8217;

So, on the site of Britain8217;s oldest surviving food market, Borough Market, Iqbal is launching Roast this month. Here8217;s to suckling pigs and rotating chickens!

Marrying Indira, BBC8217;s Mother India
This week, BBC8217;s documentary Indira Gandhi: The Killing of Mother India was billed as showing previously unseen footage. At first, however, it looked as though it had cast all the usual suspects: there was commentary by Sir Mark Tully who described Bhindranwale as 8216;8216;not particularly intelligent, but definitely charismatic8217;8217;, plus interviews with Arun Nehru et all. It didn8217;t help that the documentary launched immediately into cliches 8212; the late prime minister was a 20th century icon who was 8216;8216;loved and loathed in equal measures8217;8217;, she was also regarded as being 8216;8216;the architect of her own demise8217;8217;. But Nick Read who produced, directed and wrote the programme, wove in the fascinating footage of her wedding to a handsome young Feroze Gandhi.

And it was this depiction of a blossoming young woman, who arrived in Britain to study at Oxford as a shy teenager, yet returned to India to marry a man her father had misgivings about which won it most points.

Green tea-ser, this one
You can bring coals to Newcastle, or, going by one of the latest trends, bring to the nation of tea-drinkers8230;wait up, healthy teas. Divia Lalvani reveals her new project in the latest issue of Shoo magazine, a collector8217;s edition to mark the 10th issue. Divia, apart from being the daughter of multi-millionaire Binatone electronics founder Gulu Lalvani, is a tried and tested entrepeneur in her own right. She set up the Oriental restaurant Zuma in Knightsbridge, made it the destination for A-list stars and after selling her shares in the business, is now working with her father besides pursuing her interest in Eastern teas.

8216;8216;When I was researching the cuisine for Zuma, I discovered all the different properties for green teas and white teas. There is so much that we haven8217;t tapped into yet.8217;8217; And then, Divia Teas made it to Harrods and Harvey Nichols. I8217;m assuming she8217;s not taking them back to the East just yet.