It looks genuine and promising to me but, even if a builder seemed genuine and promising, any sensible person would still take references and check the person out. There are so many lies, misrepresentations and cons on eBay (for BIR style recipes) that I suggest you can never be too careful. Did he really work in BIRs? Was he any more than a junior doing menial support tasks, and does he really know how to produce divine flavours?

hey jb
i think this all sounds very promising. this is just what this forum needs at the moment to hopefully inspire us all on our quest to find the "Holy Grail"

This looks like a promising thread and I agree that the forum could do with a really strong thread just now - I hope this enquiry pays dividends.

Well it's definitely happening!!  I have just spoken to the guy,he seems quite an honest and genuine person.He works in a restaurant and tells me he is quite busy doing cookery lessons for people at home in his spare time.

I told him I am basically a curry addict,eating at least two sometimes three take-aways/sit in meals a week.I added that I have been going to the same local restaurant for about 20 years,and said that getting any recipes/info etc from the staff was like getting blood out of a stone.Most of the time I get a shrug of the shoulders and the comment 'Only the chef knows' or they tell me you simply cannot recreate restaurant standard curries at home.

He said you can definitely cook these same dishes at home using a base sauce,spice mixture etc.All it takes is a lot of preparation and a bit of practice.

I am on holiday this Friday for a week,so he is coming round to my house around the 21th June for a half hour session,basically he wants to go through exactly want I want to cook and to tell me exactly what ingredients I am going to need.He will start by demonstrating how to cook a base sauce,leave me to to have a couple of attempts on my own and then return and progress with the recipes I want to cook.It does sound very promising,I think he realises that I have done by homework already and hopefully he will tell me everything he knows.Like I said he does seem like an honest guy.

Watch this space!!!!!!!!!!!

That does sound very promising indeed, roll on the 21st.

Jb,

It's like waiting for Xmas, only 12 more sleeps haha ;D

Ray ;D

This sounds very promising like you say the restaurants don't give to much away so this could be a foot in the door ;D, i was in my local Bir the other day and tried to get his peshwari nan filling off him he wouldn't tell me quantities but he did give me some ready made filling to take home with me to try to work it out think i know whats in it just need to get the mix right now but getting there ;D

ROLL ON THE 21st

nice one jb 

Awesome.. looking forward to this one!

Do you need a lodger?

Do you know which restaurant he works for? I think he lives in Stanford-le-hope which could mean he works in either Monty's Curry Centre or Bombay Nights. It would be good to try the restaurant version to compare with the home cooked one.