The Curry Club was founded by Pat Chapman in 1982, to further the understanding and appreciation of the

cuisine A cuisine is a style of cooking characterized by distinctive ingredients, List of cooking techniques, techniques and Dish (food), dishes, and usually associated with a specific culture or geographic region. Regional food preparation techniques, ...

s of the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

. In 2007 it became known as Pat Chapman's Curry Club. It gave annual

Curry Awards The Curry Awards is an award given to curry restaurants in the United Kingdom, which have achieved "total excellence" in all departments by The Curry Club in association with its publication, The Good Curry Guide. The Good Curry Guide Awards ce ...

and published an annual ''Good Curry Guide'' until 2013.

History

Pat Chapman founded the Curry Club as a hobby business in January 1982 at a time in which little information had been published on the subject of curry and many of the published recipes were complicated and contained hard-to-get ingredients. Based in

Haslemere The town of Haslemere () and the villages of Shottermill and Grayswood are in south-west Surrey, England, around south-west of London. Together with the settlements of Hindhead and Beacon Hill (Hindhead, Surrey), Beacon Hill, they comprise ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, The Curry Club was best known for its publications, particularly its range of

cookbooks A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes. Cookbooks may be general, or may specialize in a particular cuisine or category of food. Recipes in cookbooks are organized in various ways: by course (appetizer, first cours ...

, DVDs, a regular magazine and the Good Curry Guide a regularly published guidebook, which identifies the UK's top curry restaurants. In addition the Curry Club carried out cookery courses, demonstrations, trips to Indian restaurants and tours to India. Curry Club members formed the national network of reporters, which led to the selection of restaurants in the '' Good Curry Guide'' and achievement awards to the top restaurants until 2013. Until 2006, members paid a nominal subscription to receive a quarterly publication, the Curry Club Magazine with contributions from members and professionals, including features on curry and the curry lands. Regularly updated information was sent by email. Regular content included recipes, cooking features and tips, restaurant reviews, biographies on relevant people chefs and restaurateurs, wine pairings, travel and tourism information, and historical pieces. Its remit was to cover Asian cuisine i.e. South Asian cuisine (including Bangladeshi, Indian, Pakistani, Nepalese and Sri Lankan cuisines). It also included occasional input on other exotic and spicy cuisines. The magazine was later replaced by the Curry Magazine. The Club held hands-on private and group cooking tutorials at its Haslemere cooking school, and on the social side organised

gourmet Gourmet (, ) is a cultural idea associated with the culinary arts of fine food and drink, or haute cuisine, which is characterized by their high level of refined and elaborate food preparation techniques and displays of balanced meals that have ...

nights at selected restaurants and venues. Between 1983 and 2009, the Club organised sixteen gourmet trips to India and other countries, where a small group of enthusiasts engaged in sightseeing as well as sampling the food of each region.

References

External links

Pat Chapman's homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Curry Club Gastronomical societies Curry Indian cuisine in the United Kingdom 1982 establishments in the United Kingdom Haslemere