London’s food frat knows him as the co-founder and chef de cuisine of Vama and Chakra restaurants in London. His friends in Calcutta know him as the son of aunty Neena who owns and runs the 1962-established Tiny Tots Nursery in New Alipore. Socialites know him as the Purple Jasmine and Maia man, who with his creative co-director, Ungelie Patel, can get a wedding done, anywhere in the world.
t2 first met Andy Varma at the finals of Young Chef India Schools, an inter-school cooking contest held at the University of West London in 2014, where Andy was judge. After the contest, we were invited to his restaurant Chakra for dinner. One of the black-and-white photographs on the walls we distinctly remember was of the bearers at The Saturday Club, in their turbaned uniforms. And that’s when we became friends.
On February 11, in Delhi, Rutland Hall Publishers, of which Andy is co-director with Kamaljit Singh and Ungelie Patel, launched a book titled Timeless Treasures — The Material Culture of Regal Indian Weddings. At the gala India launch, there was the Maharaja of Kapurthala and author Deepika Ahlawat. t2 was invited to Andy’s Alipore home where he turned the pages...
How and when was the idea for this book conceptualised?
Three years ago, Kamaljit, Ungelie and myself were sitting and having a drink together and I think the best ideas germinate when you’re drinking (laughs)! We decided it would be good to do a book on weddings. Is there a reference book on weddings that exists? Do we have any historical data which we can elaborate that is factual? And so our conversation was about a book on how the royal families of India would commission jewellers like Cartier, Mauboussin and Chaumet and the British and European companies that had the beautiful Rolls-Royce and the Bentleys at that time, and translate them into the Indian wedding scene.
Once we had the team together, we realised that logistically, to go to the Kapurthala palace, go to Kashmir, go have a look at the archives in Jodhpur and Jaipur, go down to Mysore and Hyderabad, would take time.
How did you get the Maharajas to agree?
Deepika Ahlawat, who is our author and historical editor, is constantly in touch with the Indian royalty, getting information, winning their trust and writing about them. She is already doing projects with the Maharaja of Kapurthala, with the Scindia and Gwalior families, and then also in the south with the nawabs and nizams including Middle Eastern royalty. So the door opened because of credibility. We literally had access to rooms in the palaces and archives of their private collections. The Maharaja of Kashmir very kindly took his old saris out which were preserved by the princess and said, “Don’t just document it, here are the old photographs of when and where they were worn”.
What role did Cartier play?
Cartier opened their archives for us. They told us, “Our historical connection goes a long way and we’d love to invite you to our archives in Paris and choose your photographs.” So you can imagine how much fun Deepika, Ungelie, Kamaljit, our director of design Peter Dawson and myself had! The India archives are extremely important for the jeweller because that period was a golden period for them. That made Cartier actually because the Indian royalty commissioned such big pieces. And they constantly changed their jewellery. For example, one jewellery piece was given to a Maharani. She got bored with that style in a year or so and sent it back to Cartier to redesign it. So the same set of stones with different designs! Maybe, a heavy neckpiece made into a brooch or a couple of earrings or a light necklace.
How is the coffee table relevant to a wedding today?
It addresses real questions like, ‘Where are we going to have the wedding?’ So that’s the chapter titled Locations, which lists some of the best wedding destinations. And then you go into the chapter Finery — the jewellery and the fashion and all your objets d’art. And then there’s Banquets, followed by Ceremonies, where all the best planners, who we invited into the book, are listed. You can get in touch with the planner directly because all the contact details are shared. And finally, a chapter on Togetherness, which has some of the best hotels for honeymooning couples.
Talking of weddings, how is Maia, your events, design and catering company with Ungelie, going?
Maia by the AC (www.maia-events.co.uk) is now a global company. We just did a beautiful wedding in Barcelona for a client from London. We are also taking an English client to Udaipur to see the potential of holding a wedding there. We’ve got destination partners in hundreds of venues. Based on your budget, whether you’re doing it for 50 or 1,000 guests, we have locations, food and design for everyone.
Tell us about the rich and famous weddings you did…
With Silk Events, our previous company, we did a beautiful wedding for Sajjan Jindal’s daughter Tanvi in Florence. Mr Jindal said, “Andy, can you get the Kalkutta ka paanwallah?” I asked him, “Which one?” and he said, “The one on Park Street, I don’t know the name”. So we sent Sushanto from mum’s Calcutta office who tracked down the paanwallah and asked him, “Do you have your PAN number because we need your passport and we will take you abroad?” He said, “PAN hum nahin jaanta, paan banane jaanta!” Would you believe, without a bank account, without anything, we got his passport made and got him on the flight. And he was so happy to go to Florence to make paan! And when Mr Jindal had the Kalkutta patta wallah paan, he called me and said, “I have noticed, thank you so much”.
The other one was Calcutta girl Ayesha Thapar who got married to Nikesh Arora in Puglia, Italy, and we did the entire food there. So we took the entire team from London and then executed the most amazing wedding for her. The morning party was on the beach and that was also absolutely fantastic.
Ungelie and I recently did a couple of weddings, one was in Capri, which was difficult because it’s an island and controlled by boats and ferries, and then we had one in Barcelona for a Pakistani couple from London. What’s nice about basing ourselves in London is that it’s so easy to do jobs in Europe or in the UK anywhere, like Scotland, which is beautiful in the summertime.
Pictures of Andy: Pabitra Das
