MAHARAJA’S FOOD

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19129, 25 September 1936, Page 11

MAHARAJA’S FOOD

PROBLEMS FOR COOKS ' DANGER OF SHADOWS LONDON, July 25. Two cooks who have travelled from India with the Maharaja- of Mysore, work in a specially guarded room two miles from their master’s- hotel, preparing food for him. The Maharaja- is staying in a sevenroom suite in the Dorchester Hotel, Park lane, during his visit to London. For the first 24- hour after his arrival there last Thursday his two personal cooks from India, used a special kitchen set aside for their use in the hotel. It was decided, however, that the position was dangerous for their monarch’s food, as at any moment, the. shadow of ono of the white cooks .working in the big kitchen might fall across what they were cooking. This would, according to the Maharaja’s beliefs, defile the food. Now the two Indian cooks have joined the rest of the Maharaja's staff at a. hotel in Kensington, near Palace Gate, where, in a specially guarded room, they prepare his meals with food which they themselves buy. The Maharaja’s food consists largely of curry and garlic, but butter and milk also form an important, part of his diet. He only drinks water which has been blessed by his priests, who daily perform their rites in the room in his hotel which lias been converted into a. temple for the golden goddess who accompanies him on all his travels.

It would have been too complicated, it was decided, to keep him supplied with the water from the Ganges which he is normally supposed, by his -religion, to drink.

The Maharaja rises at 6 each morning and goes out from 7 to 9. The rest of the day ho spends in his room, receiving as many as 30 callers.