Just Start with British Curry House Cooking
British curry house cooking is its own tradition, distinct from the regional cuisines of India. It emerged in the 1960s and 70s when Bangladeshi and Pakistani restaurateurs adapted South Asian recipes for British palates, developing a repertoire of dishes that now feels inseparable from British culture. Tikka masala, balti, vindaloo, bhuna, korma, jalfrezi, rogan josh: these are not simply Indian dishes served in England. They are a cuisine unto themselves, with their own techniques, base sauces, and flavor profiles refined over decades in thousands of curry houses across the country.
The secret to BIR cooking lies in a shared method. Most restaurants build from a large batch of base gravy, a slow-cooked onion and tomato sauce that forms the foundation of nearly every dish on the menu. Individual curries are then cooked to order in minutes, with spices, proteins, and finishing ingredients added to portions of that base sauce at high heat. Once you understand this system, the entire menu opens up. A korma and a vindaloo start from the same base. The difference is in the spice blend, the heat level, and the finishing touches: cream and almonds for one, chili and vinegar for the other.
Start here
The Curry Guy
Dan Toombs · 160 pages · 2017 · Easy
Themes: British Indian restaurant cooking, curry house classics, base gravy technique, tikka masala
The definitive guide to recreating British Indian restaurant food at home. Dan Toombs spent years travelling around UK curry houses, learning the kitchen secrets that make takeaway curries taste the way they do, and this book distils everything he learned into a clear, repeatable system that any home cook can follow.
Why Start Here
Most people who want to cook curry house food at home hit the same wall: the results never taste quite like the restaurant. The spices are right, the ingredients are familiar, but something is missing. That something is the base gravy, and Toombs puts it front and center. He teaches you to make a large batch of the slow-cooked onion sauce that forms the backbone of BIR cooking, then shows you how to use it to produce any dish on a curry house menu in under ten minutes.
The book covers all the classics: tikka masala, korma, dopiazza, pasanda, madras, dhansak, rogan josh, vindaloo, jalfrezi, bhuna, balti, and keema. Each recipe follows the same core method, which means you are really learning one technique and then varying it. By the time you have cooked three or four dishes, you understand the system well enough to improvise.
Toombs writes with the enthusiasm of someone who genuinely loves this food and has spent years figuring out how to make it work at home. The instructions are precise where they need to be, especially around spice quantities and cooking temperatures, but never fussy. He assumes you have a normal kitchen with normal equipment.
What to Expect
A compact 160-page hardcover focused entirely on BIR cooking. No detours into authentic regional Indian cuisine or fusion experiments. Every recipe is built around the restaurant-style base gravy method. You will need to stock a small spice shelf (cumin, coriander, turmeric, garam masala, paprika, chili powder, fenugreek) but nothing obscure. The photography is clean and appetizing, and the layout makes it easy to follow recipes while cooking.
Alternatives
Shamil Thakrar, Kavi Thakrar & Naved Nasir · 399 pages · 2019 · Moderate
The cookbook from one of Britain’s most beloved Indian restaurant chains, Dishoom draws on Bombay’s Irani cafe tradition to create food that sits at the intersection of Indian and British dining culture. This is not a traditional curry house cookbook, but it captures the spirit of what makes British Indian food special: comfort, generosity, and bold flavors adapted for a specific time and place.
Why This Book
Dishoom occupies a unique space in British Indian cooking. The restaurants are inspired by the Irani cafes of Bombay, communal eating houses run by Zoroastrian immigrants from Iran that became institutions in the city. The cookbook brings that tradition to the home kitchen with recipes for the dishes that made Dishoom famous: the bacon naan roll, black daal, chicken ruby curry, lamb raan, and house chai.
Where The Curry Guy focuses on replicating the classic BIR curry house experience, Dishoom offers something more expansive. The recipes range from breakfast dishes and street food snacks through to elaborate weekend projects. The black daal alone, simmered for 24 hours, has converted thousands of home cooks. The book is as much a love letter to Bombay as it is a cookbook, filled with stories, photographs, and cultural context that make the recipes feel alive.
The difficulty level is a step up from a straightforward curry house cookbook. Some recipes require patience and planning, and the ingredient lists can be longer. But the instructions are thorough, and the results consistently deliver the kind of food that makes people ask for the recipe.
What to Expect
A substantial 399-page hardcover that functions as both cookbook and cultural document. Over 100 recipes organized from morning to night. Beautiful photography and storytelling throughout. You will need a decent spice collection and some recipes call for specialty ingredients, though most can be sourced from a good supermarket or online. Named a New York Times notable cookbook and a Food52 best cookbook of the year.