Are the curries at the UK curry restaurants authentic?
It’s a question which does concern some people. The answer applies to every restaurant sector, not just ‘Indian’ Firstly, what is ‘authentic’? Are we referring to home cooking? Presumably, since the restaurant vogue and cookery book plethora did not exist other than the very rich pre 1960, yes we are. But not all home cooks are good cooks, so are we referring to home cooking or restaurant cooking? All restaurants make a number of preparations or applies certain methods which one simply would not do at home. French, Chinese. Thai, TexMex, English (the carvery steams the beef before flashing it in a hot oven so it appears roasted) or Indian. It’s a matter of scale. No home I know cooks for 100 diners a day. In our sector, I call it Formula Curries. This is my definition as appears in my Good Curry Guide glossary: Many of our ‘Indian’ restaurants operate to a formula which was pioneered in the late 1940s. In those early restaurants, a way had to be found to deliver a variety of curries, w
