Krishna Rao of Woodlands — Man who took iconic Udupi cuisine to global palate

Chennai

WAY back, the toughest job in a vegetarian hotel was to grind the idly batter and the joke went that anyone who didn’t have money to pay their bill would be made to do just that.

By a sheer geographical coincidence, there was a village in Udupi district called Kadandale which was in a shallow valley surrounded by rounded hills. The village looked like a batter grinding stone and Kadandale meant grinding stone in a Kannada dialect. Krishna Rao was born here at the turn of the century to a poor ayurvedic practitioner.

Fate smiled and his sister was married off to a relative who ran a hotel in distant Madras. He got an opportunity to migrate and must have been surprised at the trick providence was playing. He got employed in a vegetarian hotel, Sharada Vilas Brahmins Hotel in George Town, to grind idly batter. Soon he jumped jobs to a smaller establishment in a converted garage and sleeping on the pavement toiled to earn a higher salary and position of junior cook.

Two years of slogging impressed his boss who offered to sell a loss-making sister restaurant near Kotwal Savadi to Krishna for Rs 700, to be paid in monthly instalments.

It had taken only three years for Rao to ascend the ladder, from a cleaning boy to hotel owner. However, to be a restaurateur, the pathway is as slippery as the hotel kitchen floor. But Krishna managed a good turnover and a lasting clientele mainly because even in the new restaurant being the owner made no difference to his work culture. He was the first to wake up and last to sleep and soon turned around the sick establishment.

He could have been satisfied. But there were changes going on in Madras, economically and socially. Eating out with family was becoming affordable and socially acceptable in the thirties and forties. In fact, historians gather many details of the World War scarcities in Madras only from petitions submitted by the hotel association to the government.

Krishna had decided that George Town no longer held the exclusive future for this growing city. Retail and entertainment were now in the posh and wide Mount Road and that’s where his high-end eatery should position itself. And more importantly, at that point, it was difficult to assess whether it was good or bad, but there was not a single vegetarian restaurant on Mount Road.

Krishna Rao did the unthinkable. He sold a flourishing business lock, stock, and barrel based on a hunch. Across the Government Estate was a building called Belloc. It was diametrically opposite the Elphinstone Theatre and between the two lay the Roundtana in the middle of Mount Road, which made this place the most recognised spot of the city. Krishna recognised the potential and offered a princely monthly rent of Rs 90 to start his ‘Udupi Sri Krishna Vilas Hotel’.

Restaurants those days were dark and had benches for the customers. Krishna decided to change all that. His was a well-lit restaurant with chairs and table. He also added marble tops for the wooden tables to be able to clean them well. Overall, he presented to the public great ambience with a promise of visible cleanliness. He also had separate sections for Brahmins and non-Brahmins and innovatively added a section for Muslims as well for he realised he was in the heart of Nawabi residential area. Soon, bowing to demand, he would have separate women’s dining rooms as well.

Krishna Rao spent time and effort on quality and soon a trip to Mount Road for Krishna Vilas tiffin became a habit for many across the city. It is believed the city’s addiction to masala dosa started right here. The proliferation of the Udupi brand of hotel happened after he popularised it.

Madras was the capital of a vast presidency and visitors thronged it. Expanding into lodging, he rented the erstwhile Ramnad Palace in Royapettah and the Woodlands group of hotels as a brand was born. Surprisingly, Krishna Rao survived the World War evacuation and the scarcities with little damage. Rajaji would host the Independence tea party on the lawns of the Woodlands. When the lease expired, Krishna Rao moved to Edward Elliot’s Road, next to movie mogul SS Vasan’s residence -- another landmark. Numerous weddings and film shootings used to take place here. A party which challenged Nehruvian might, the Swatantra, was formed here and announced on the premises of Vivekananda College across the road.

He would open rooftop and drive-in restaurants and take the Udupi cuisine even to the shadow of the United Nations building as he expanded, fiercely backed by a world-renowned brand name.

A city’s history should include its culinary evolution as well. Especially in Madras, where hotel and hostel institutions and their restrictions of admitting people led to great political transformations in the 20th century.

The distant Udupi cuisine set its foot firmly in the city with the advent of Krishna Rao of the Woodlands and that is a remarkable achievement for one man to do.

—The author is a historian

REFERENCE:Host to the Millions: The Story of Krishna Raoby S Krishnan