At 67, Jitu Patel is still going strong. Although last year he relinquished his position as chair of trustees at London’s Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) Mandir (popularly known as the Neasden temple), he remains a director of almost 30 companies, among them one that owns the “satvic” (purifying) vegetarian Shayona Restaurant right next door.
Before the shimmering temple was built a truck garage more typical of the area stood on the site, and Jitu played a vital role in arranging for almost 5,000 tonnes of Bulgarian limestone and Carrara marble to be shipped to India, where they were hand-carved by 1,500 artisans before the temple’s 26,300 separate pieces were assembled in sight of Wembley Stadium and the North Circular Road. The juxtaposition itself appears almost supernatural.
As the focal point of the UK’s Hindu community, BAPS Neasden typically receives over 50,000 people a day during Diwali celebrations. Many worshippers (as well as many of the Temple’s curious visitors) subsequently hoover over to the Shayona after visiting what was largest Hindu temple outside India when it was built in 1995, and also Europe’s first traditional stone mandir.
One of them was the Daily telegraph’s restaurant critic Matthew Norman. He had just been given a tour of the mandir and was stunned. “Europe’s first traditional Hindu temple is among the wonders of the age,” he marvelled.
He liked the food, too. At first sceptical not just of the absence of meat but also onion and garlic, Norman concluded that, “In all my years of reviewing, I can think of very few outings I enjoyed as much … This was probably the best vegetarian meal of my life.” The Shayona is now recommended by the Michelin Guide.
Entrepreneur, devotee, community leader and gourmand, Jitu Patel was born in Kenya and spent his teenage years in Zambia with his family before arriving in London in 1978, where he lives, happily surrounded by golf clubs and within easy reach of the mandir, with his wife Rohini.
“She has been a pillar of strength for me,” says Patel of his wife. The couple have three children and now also three grandchildren.
Patel’s life and career have been based around business and religion – he qualified as a certified accountant with Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC) and was always a devout Hindu who took his sevak (service) role very seriously.
His decades of service for BAPS, and as a leading light in the Hindu community, made it inevitable that Patel would rub shoulders with the country’s major politicians and the growing cohort of Asians taking a leading role in the life of the UK.
Tony and Cherie Blair first visited the mandir, and were followed seven years later in 2013 by prime minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha.
The invitation was reciprocated by Theresa May when she was in 10 Downing Street, and in October 2016 Patel attended a special Diwali reception hosted there.
Among the 150 guests from the country’s Hindu, Sikh and Jain communities Chancellor Sajid Javid (then local government and communities secretary); Home Secretary Priti Patel (then the minister of state at the Department for International Development); and Alok Sharma, who at that time was a
Foreign Office minister but was recently appointed by Boris Johnson to Priti Patel’s old job as secretary of state at the DFID).
Many of the most influential figures in the British-Asian world were present at this glittering occasion – and outside of the GG2 Diversity Awards ceremony it was probably the largest-ever gathering of Asian Power List-ers.
Patel’s business history is impressively long and diverse. As managing director of Adminstore, he opened his first Crispins food and wine shop in 1979. In 1985, he linked up with Kenyan-born Mahesh Patel and bought convenience chain Europa Foods. They expanded until they were running 50 stores, trading as Europa, Harts and Cullens, and in January 2004, sold the business to Tesco for almost £54 million.
Always looking for new challenges, in 2014 he became a majority shareholder in loss-making snack brand Burts Potato Chips, transforming it into the foremost premium British crisps and turning around the fortunes of the company. Patel says his ambition is “to ensure that we carry on being the best premium crisps brand in the business, to continue to grow the business and be a major player in the sector.” Burts now expects to sell £54 million worth of crisps in 2019.
Patel’s “Snack King” credentials have been further boosted after also becoming a director of the family-run company that makes the artisan Brown Bag Crisps.
Patel’s hobbies include playing golf and watching old Bollywood movies; and although he owns the Shayona Restaurant, he admits to enjoying – whisper it – Chinese food.
