Kati Roll - History

History

The Kati Roll is said to have started its life from the Nizam Restaurant in Kolkata, a popular eatery founded in 1932 that sold kebabs and parathas and other Mughlai food in the heart of Kolkata. There are many stories about how exactly the roll got started. Some centre around harried office commuters who wanted something quick and portable, some mention British Babus who were too fastidious to touch the kabab. The most likely origin is probably more mundane, but in any case someone decided to roll things up at some point. Nizam enjoyed a virtual monopoly of this method of serving a kabab for decades, but it eventually became commonplace in Kolkata and later spread elsewhere.

The kati part of the name came later. Like everywhere in India, Nizam's used iron skewers to make their kababs; they were easy to maintain and lasted a lifetime. However, as Nizam's popularity grew, these long heavy iron skewers started becoming a problem; far more was required than could be handled. In 1964, Nizam moved to bamboo skewers that were lightweight and available in large numbers. These skewers are referred to in Bengali as kati or stick, and the names kati kabab and kati roll soon stuck. The name eventually became synonymous with any kind of paratha rolled with stuffing (even when neither kati nor kabab was involved) such as the egg roll or the potato roll, and later even for other breads such as naan or roomali.