Queen Victoria's Chicken Curry

Curry at the Palace

In 1887—after her Golden Jubilee—Queen Victoria brought Indian attendants into her household, and she became very fond of one in particular: Abdul Karim. First hired as a servant, Karim formed a close bond with Victoria and ended up having a huge impact on her life, influencing everything from her daily routines and private correspondence to what appeared on her dinner table.

Thanks to Karim, curry went from being an occasional treat to part of Victoria’s regular routine. She even noted in her diary on 20 August 1887 that she’d had “some excellent curry” made by one of her Indian servants.

Curry in Victorian Britain

By the time Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837, curry wasn’t new in Britain. Early printed recipes appear in Hannah Glasse’s The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy (1758 edition). In London, the Norris Street Coffee House in Haymarket was advertising “true Indian curey paste” in 1773, and in 1810, Sake Dean Mahomed opened the Hindoostane Coffee House, often cited as London’s first Indian restaurant.

Curry was already reaching the palace too: food historian Annie Gray notes “curry de poulet” on a Windsor Castle dinner menu dated 29 December 1847. But in the late 1880s, after Karim’s arrival, curries started showing up on Victoria’s menus regularly.