Some weeks ago I was lucky enough to be invited onto the kitchen of my local t/a and watched them cook a chicken madras and was surprised to see no spice or salt added to the dish  When I asked the chef about this he said 'everything is in the gravy,nothing extra is needed'  he also used no oil at the start of the curry and instead used a chef's spoon of base and fried this down before starting with the g/g etc etc.
I asked if I could make my lamb madras and he agreed,I started with a small amount of veg oil plus added about a heaped teaspoon of mix powder ( to his disapproval  ;D ) when finished I tasted both and my curry was best  ;D
Whether this 'all in the base' is a relatively recent practice I don't know but it might explain why t/a curry's seem to be
lacking in flavour compared to even a year ago 

I saw on local Midlands TV a year or so ago about there being a shortage of skilled curry chefs due to recent immigration restrictions. The article showed how a young white lad was given a job knocking out curries in a Local TA. I think some Chefs/Owners are trying to de-skill to process by making batches of curry sauce that can be converted to dishes by someone with relatively minimal skills & training. Just a thought!. I've really noticed a general decline in quality in recent years (from the golden era of late70's/early 80's)

Hi all. Is there a Kushi Garam masala (from the book) which goes in the kushi spice mix. Thanks

Forgive my ignorance but where is the info on the Chefs spice mix. I can't see a FAQ.