An 85-year-old Indian-origin woman who came to the UK as an asylum from Uganda is currently one of its oldest chefs and restaurateurs.
Manjula Patel is the owner of and runs Manju’s, a popular restaurant in the seaside town associated with Brighton that serves traditional vegetarian dishes from the western Native indian state of Gujarat – where Manju, as she is lovingly called, was born.
The girl moved to Kampala town in Uganda with her parents within the late 1930s, whenever she was 3. Her father ran a general store presently there for some years.
The girl childhood, Manju states, was a happy a single. But that changed at 13, when her father passed away suddenly.
Overnight, her mother grew to become the sole breadwinner plus Manju stepped into help her take care of the family.
Manju Patel
With her single mother’s help and quality recipes, the teenager started cooking and offering 35 tiffin containers of food each day to office workers.
“Along with traditional Gujarati recipes, my mom also passed on the values of discipline and an incredible work ethics, values I still uphold, ” Manju says.
In 1964, Manju married a businessman, and they got two sons through the years.
But their peaceful lifestyle came to an immediate end in 1972, whenever dictator Idi Amin took over Uganda. During those times, Asians owned 90% of the country’s businesses and accounted for the majority of tax revenues.
Yet Amin ordered these to leave the country inside 90 days, accusing them of “milking Uganda’s money”.
Tens of thousands of Asians were displaced, and many were forced to proceed to other countries.
Manju, her spouse and their two young sons arrived in London – where her brother lived – with just £12 ($15).
“Just three days right after we arrived in the UK, I started searching for a job because we had no money, ” the girl says.
Manju Patel
She found act as a machine owner at a local factory in London which produced electric plug sockets, and worked generally there until retiring when justin was 65.
She got always dreamed of operating her own restaurant however finances didn’t enable it. But her love for cooking didn’t fade.
Every single day after work, she would cook the Gujarati dishes she learned from her mother – from okra and potato curry to theplas (flatbreads) – for her family members.
Manju’s kids had always desired to fulfil their mom’s dream, so a couple of years ago, they began looking around for a suitable place.
“[When] this place came up, we all decided to buy it. The deal came via on mum’s 80th birthday, ” says Jaymin Patel, Manju’s elder son.
It was one of the most happy days of Manju’s life.
“I never thought that my sons would buy me a restaurant. I was so joyful, and I was crying, and I said, ‘oh my dream has become complete’. ”
Manju’s has been delighting locals and tourists in Brighton since 2017.
“We decided to open up a Gujarati restaurant because it is the food we all know. It is the food that will mum has been food preparation since she had been young, ” states Manju’s younger son Naimesh.
But starting a vegetarian cafe came with its share of challenges.
inch[People] would sit down, expecting to consume chicken tikka masala. But when we would inform them we only provide vegetarian food, a lot of people would walk out, inch he says, adding that people love their dishes now.
Manju’s is a family-run operation. Manju’s sons greet clients and take their orders, while she and her daughters-in-law Dipali and Kirti run the kitchen and prepare the food.
The eating place, which has around forty eight customers a day, has a small menu.
“On any given day, the menu will have twelve dishes that alter constantly, depending on the vegetables that are in season, ” says Kirti, Manju’s elder daughter-in-law.
Like various other businesses, the Covid pandemic and higher inflation in the UK offers hit their work as well.
But Manju says she has no plans to retire just yet.
“I want to continue cooking and feeding people so long as I can. ”
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