Pav, vada and chutney — a trio that when clubbed together, makes a dish that every Mumbaikar knows and loves to devour. But what is the story behind this common man’s meal, which is sold on the streets and restaurants across the city? “Vada pav originated in Mumbai’s Dadar area, precisely near Dadar station’s Suvidha store. Ashok Vaidya was the first one to start serving and selling this dish on a small stall,” says Dr Mohsina Mukadam, a food historian.  

Vaidya was the inventor and founder of this iconic dish, that he invented sometime between 1967 and 1968.  “It is a relatively new dish. Vaidya’s two sons now look after the same stall at the same location,” says Dr Mukadam, adding that in general, in India, one cannot isolate a dish from the politics and economics of the time  when it was discovered . “The late 1960s was the time when Shiv Sena was getting a foothold. It was also the decade when several Udupi restaurants had cropped up in the city; people from the southern states had migrated to Mumbai and were getting employed in the private sector.