Hi Pete, sorry for the late reply, this site doesnt seem to have a "notify me of replies".
No I havn't ever done "curry hell" although I know a few people who have. I dont think I could to be honest, and even if I tried I dont think Id enjoy it

. There was a documentry on BBC2 a few years back (think it was called "curry") that featured the restaraunt and showed a "curry hell" contest, you may have saw it. Wish I had of taped it, it was quite good.
Im not sure if they still do the spice kits, I dont think they were that popular. I still might ask him for a demo the next time Im in though as he's allways quite chatty and was allways very helpfull when I used to buy the kits.
Ive looked through quite a few of the recipes on here allready, I made a batch of base sauce with one of the recipes on here, it turned out quite good.

Have you seen any of the "balti kitchen" videos? Well worth a watch if you havn't seen any. He makes a canny base sauce and good pilau rice.
http://www.sendit.com/circle/search?words=balti+kitchen&f=all&x=0&y=0Cheers,
Pete.