The Good Curry Guide's Pat Chapman

Pat Chapman is a food writer, broadcaster and author, best known for founding The Curry Club.  Since 1984 Pat has written 'The Good Curry Guide’, a regularly published guidebook, identifying the UK’s top curry restaurants.  A veteran television presenter, Pat has appeared on  "This Morning",  GMTV,  "The Big Breakfast"  and  the BBC's "Food and Drink"  and  "Good Food”.

To date he has written thirty-four books, with sales topping 1.5 million copies.  Pat is also a contributing editor to Tandoori Magazine.  The Daily Mail’s Rosemary Stark wrote that, Pat Chapman 'is responsible for Baltifying Britain'.

 

 Pat on Lorraine Kelly's GMTV show.

Q: Where did your love of Indian subcontinent food come from?  

A: Six generations of family in India since 1730.  They were all Brits working there.  I was born in London.

Q: Do you have  a  favourite dish?

A: Hot (piquante) dishes.

Q: What makes a great Indian restaurant?

A: One thing will do.  Care.

Q: ‘Indian restaurant’  or  ‘Curry House’?

A: To me they mean different things.  It is a pity the word 'curry' has achieved a down market image.

It is also a pity that we use the term Indian when we mean Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi, et al.  And the word 'Asian' is little better.  New words needed!

  

Q: Do you like hot curry?

A: I Like hot, yes.  But I like anything if it is cooked well.

Q: What sort of things do you cook at home?

A: All sorts.  All nationalities.

Q: What well-known figure (alive or dead,  real or fictional) would you most like to share a curry with?  

A: The Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (responsible for building the Taj Mahal and great Mughal feasts)

Q: What is the best restaurant you have ever been to?

A: Queen's Grill, QE2.

Q: Curry is great because…

A: That one word sums up a single dish, a meal or an entire cuisine.  No other culinary word does that.

Pat Chapman's Curry Club regularly takes 'Gourmet Tours' to India  and  run cookery courses.  Find out more at  http://www.patchapman.co.uk/