Since 1995, Cyrus Todiwala OBE DL FIH and his wife, Pervin, have been at the heart of Café Spice Namasté, a family-owned restaurant renowned for its original and sophisticated approach to Indian cuisine. Today, innovation remains central to the Todiwalas’ approach, with a menu that demands variety, consistency and high-quality cooking at speed.

It was this combination that led Cyrus and Pervin to Panasonic Professional Kitchen’s NE-SCV3 High Speed Oven. While high-speed ovens are often associated with fast-casual food and dishes, the SCV3 has become an important tool for much more complex cooking at Café Spice Namasté. Cyrus explained:

“When we first looked at the Panasonic SCV3, there was a perception that the technology was predominantly for toasties and paninis. But once we started using it, we realised just how versatile and consistent it was. We began with our tikkas and then started experimenting with everything from naan breads and lamb chops to cafreal and halloumi.”

That experimentation has transformed the way Cyrus uses the oven. Rather than simply speeding up simple dishes, the SCV3 has become a versatile cooking tool capable of handling a wide range of ingredients and dishes. He commented:

“The SCV3 has become the backbone of our kitchen. It has given us the confidence to put a much wider variety of tikkas on the menu because we know we can achieve the results we want, consistently and quickly.”

The oven's combination of microwave, convection and grill cooking allows different cooking methods to be brought together in a single appliance, while its programmable functions enable the kitchen team to create and store recipes for repeatable results.
For Cyrus, this has opened the door for plenty of opportunities to test different methods of cooking.

“Have you ever tried grilling an aubergine in it? It's fantastic. Due to restrictions in our building, we can’t have a tandoor in our kitchen. Instead, we cook our naan bread off-site and put them in SCV3 to finish them ready for service in just 50 seconds. Once you understand what the oven can do, you start thinking about all the different dishes you can use it for.”

For a busy professional kitchen, speed is important, but it cannot come at the expense of quality. The SCV3’s design makes it possible for the Café Spice Namasté team to quickly prepare a diverse range of hot dishes while maintaining the standards expected of a restaurant with Cyrus' reputation.

The ability to programme individual dishes also gives the team greater control over the cooking process. Recipes can be tailored to different ingredients and dishes, allowing the kitchen to reproduce results reliably while reducing the amount of manual input required during busy service. Cyrus reflected:

“The beauty of the Panasonic SCV3 is that you can programme the cooking for each dish. Whether it's a naan, a tikka, lamb chops, cafreal or halloumi, you can set it up so the team knows exactly what to do. That gives you consistency as well as speed.”

At Café Spice Namasté, the oven demonstrates that high-speed technology can extend far beyond conventional fast-food applications, delivering the variety, speed and consistency required for sophisticated Indian cuisine.