History of Wadapav, Journey from a Simple Wadpaw to Golden Wadpaw

A post has gone viral on Twitter about a 100 dinar (Rs 2,000) wad of gold in a Dubai shop. Made of truffle butter and paneer, the Vadapava is encrusted with 22-karat gold and the video of it has gone viral on social media. It will be interesting to know the history of Wadapav on this occasion.

Vadapav said that Mumbai comes first. Today Vadapav is found in many places in the country and abroad, in every corner of small villages of the country, but Mumbai’s Vadpav is famous in the world. People from outside Mumbai enjoy Avarjun Vadapav here. Ashok Vaidya is the father of Vadpav, which has become extremely popular as a street food. Vaidya is not alive today but his son Narendra is still running his father’s business with the same enthusiasm.

Vadapav and Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray have a different relationship. Seeing the popularity of the Udapi Hotel in Mumbai, Balasaheb appealed to the Marathi youth to come forward and start a Maharashtrian food business. Inspired by this, Ashok Vaidya started a stall outside Dadar station in 1966. It is a place of great traffic for mill workers and students. Vaidya initially started selling poha, vada and omelet bread. But one day as a new experiment they sold it with potato paste and chutney and it became so popular that its popularity is limited even today.

Balasaheb Thackeray also liked Vaidya’s cheap, convenient and full Vadapav. They used to get Vadapav from here but Balasaheb had a good friendship with Vaidya. Balasaheb was Ashok Vaidya’s client and friend. During the mill strike, when many people lost their jobs, many mill workers started vadpav carts and started selling vadpav of different flavours.

In 2015, a short film was made on Ashok Vaidya and Vadpav and Vadapav became so popular all over the world that 23 August is celebrated as World Vadpav Day. Ashok Vaidya passed away in 1998, but his son Narendra, who studied fashion designing, continued his father’s business on Platform No.

From film stars, cricketers, entrepreneurs to manual labourers, the taste and flavor of Vadapav can be seen day and night, which shows the importance and popularity of Vadapav.