Chicken à la King

Did you know that every coronation in Britain after Queen Elizabeth has a special royal dish? And, it's always chicken

- VIR SANGHVI

This column was not my idea. Last month, my friend, Ashok Malik, the writer and think-tanker (is that even a word?) messaged me with an idea for Rude Food.

"Hi Vir", Ashok wrote. "As King Charles's Coronation approaches a momentous event in which about 20 of us in India are deeply invested could you consider writing on Coronation Chicken and what sort of dish would need to be invented to reflect the multicultural Britain of 2023?" 

I loved the irony ("a momentous event in which about 20 of us in India are deeply invested") and I remembered the dish well because I had the mixed fortune (misfortune?) to go to a (minor) English public school where they served Coronation Chicken.

The original Coronation Chicken was invented in 1953 by Rosemary Hume and her students at the Le Cordon Bleu school in London, to be served at a banquet for dignitaries who had come to London to attend the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

The dish was given a French name because in that era, all fancy food had to sound French. It was called Poulet Reine Elizabeth ("Chicken Queen Elizabeth") and created by Hume to fit very special circumstances.