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

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.

Featured originally in DTNEXT News