About 142 years ago on January 1, 1879, a bakery by the name of Syed Mohkam-ud-Din & Sons opened its doors in Lahore. When the concept of cakes and biscuits was largely alien to people in the Indian Subcontinent, this bakery was a novel addition that introduced the brand new concept of western bakery items to Indian Subcontinent.
The bakery was established by a young man named Mohkam, whose father Qamr-ud-Din was an army contractor for tea supplies during the British Raj before moving to Lahore from Jalandhar Cantt. He was on good terms with the then Punjab Lieutenant Governor Sir Charles Aitchison, the celebrated founder of Aitchison College. His wife Lady Aitchison, a true socialite was popular for her extraordinary baking skills. On the request of Syed Qamar-ud-Din, Lady Aitchison taught his young son western baking traditions. When Mohkam gained expertise in baking, he decided to pursue it as his career and opened a bakery in Lahore.
His clients were mostly the British, bureaucrats and the elite since the items were expensive but Mohkam made an effort to get ordinary citizens as his customers. He was the first person selling baked goods such as biscuits, patties, pastries and cakes in Lahore. He would stock a basket and walk around the Old City, handing out free samples to passers-by. Jawaharlal Nehru, Feroz Khan Noon, Mumtaz Daultana, Nawab of Junagarh, Sir Henry Lawrence and Allama Iqbal have been customers of Syed Mohkam-ud-Din & Sons.
The bakery is still running at Anarkali Lahore and is being managed by Syed Mohkam and Syed Shajar Naqvi, descendants of the founder. According to them, “We still bake for many foreign dignitaries, ambassadors and the like. The archbishop of Lahore, Mr Alexander John Malik is an old customer of ours too. We have our very own delicacies, recipes that have been passed down for generations. There was a time when Mr Bhutto was the foreign minister and my father Syed Kush Bakht Husain, sticking to his reputation of baking enormous birthday cakes, baked a 200-lb cake to the foreign minister on the occasion of Ms Benazir Bhutto’s Birthday. And then, there was the time when the Shah of Iran visited Pakistan and my father baked a seven-storied 30-lb cake for him. We even baked a 1500-lb cake when Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams visited Pakistan in 2005!”
The owners shared an interesting bit from their cherished history. “We have a biscuit and they are named ‘Lady Harrison’s Fingers’ due to a very funny incident that occurred in my grandfather’s time. Mrs Harrison was a fine painter and a fast friend of my grandpa. Every time she would drop in for coffee, she would jokingly ask my grandpa to bake cookies in the shape of those long, delicate fingers of hers. And my grandpa actually heeded to her jokes. Now not many Punjabis coming here could speak English very well nor did they very much understand the story behind those cookies that had been an overnight success by the way, so they would come in and shout at my grandfather, “O Pajee Lady Harrison diyan ungalan deyo.” We have always had very special relations with the Harrison. We baked a very special cake for their son’s birthday, a recipe we have never shared with anyone else.”
Syed Mohkam-ud-Din & Sons is the first bakery to open its doors in India and could very well be the first in South Asia.
https://en.baaghitv.com/quaid-e-azam-allama-iqbal-among-regular-visitors-to-lahores-oldest-bakery/
https://www.dawn.com/news/1033224
https://www.thefridaytimes.com/pies-in-the-sky/
