Topic: How much would you be willing to pay?

[haldi]

We know that Bengal Cuisine, London still does demos for a price
Perhaps they would be open to an offer for the full sized base
I could try to sort that out
I don't know how a camcorder would go down though
I'm not totally sure if all the staff are legal immigrants
So there would probably be an amount of suspicion
Many can only speak very limited English, so they haven't been here long

[George]

I think it would be far better to do it in the restaurant exactly the way they would do it normally. You would need to see every packet of spice to be sure there was no funny business (well you never know do you?). If this means that in the first instance that we have to cook in restaurant quantities, for the base anyhow, then so be it. I'm 100% sure I could subsequently knock the base sauce down to managable portions without compromising anything.

I agree very much with your comments here. Any home demo would have to be a bonus. The starting point must be simple obervation and fact finding on their normal approach - day in, day out, in their BIR kitchen. Every single ingredient would need to be checked, especially any blends put together in advance. But they might see us as acting like forensic scientists, so would they be prepared to go along with such 'due diligence'?

[lorrydoo]

What would be ideal would be if someone approached us with a perfect BIR recipe that is written down and guaranteed to meet all our needs.  I mean, does every new BIR that opens (the good ones) go off and get demmos before they can operate successfully?  Information must to some extent be written down because my local BIR is now completely run by the descendents of the original owners, these guys took over, over night quite  literally and there has been no change to the curries.  Just a thought.

[lorrydoo]

Dont forget, there is a vast industry that depends on recipes that are written down, just look at the countless cookery books.  And does every good recipe depend on a personal demmo from its creator?

[Secret Santa]

...But there are so many pit falls, i.e. what I think is my dream BIR curry might be total rubbish to someone else.

Precisely my thought lorrydoo. So presumably four members or so would have to taste the curries from the restaurant or takeaway before taking the plunge and handing out readies for the curry secret?

[Secret Santa]

It has the taste and the smell (pronounced) of a typical BIR curry, but it's not up there with the best of them...

Is this a recipe you've posted Cory Ander? I can safely say I have never reproduced the curry smell as I remember it and I've made a lot of curries using a lot of techniques. Are you getting this only with this particular curry or with every curry you make?

[Bobby Bhuna]

Lol, my local BIR is about as exiting as Nigela Lawson with a breast reduction, so on that note I wouldn't be willing to spend any money whatsoever. Also, having tried their curry, I could replicate it at home with ease. Cheap chicken, tin of no frills plum tomatoes and a couple of spoonfulls of Pataks curry paste. Job done. Someone also needs to tell them that food coluring and cumin seed does NOT make it Pilau Rice.

I was in there, and as you do, started chatting with boy about making currys. I went through my recipe with him, with a standard base sauce etc, and he's laughing away to himself. "Hahaha you can do it a lot quicker than that mate!"

I began to wonder, was I going about it a really long winded way? Was there an easier way to make a really tasty BIR style curry? The short answer is no. I'm tempted to this day to call them up and say "You remeber you told me there's a quicker way to make a curry? Yeah, well that's because your curry is *!@#". I'm going go in there and drop off the URL for here and maybe they can learn something.

On that note, if anyone knows of any really good take outs or restaurants in Edinburgh, please, please give me a shout.

[George]

...does every good recipe depend on a personal demmo from its creator?

I firmaly believe that 95% of a successful finished dish can be encapsulated in a good written recipe. Anyone who knows about the fundamentals of cooking can follow a recipe, like musicians can read music. Therefore if a recipe does not work it's probably the case that the recipe is useless.

[lorrydoo]

George, I think you have said is spot on.  And if we actually bought a recipe, this would save having to arrange a demmo, which I am sure might put off some potential chefs.  We would still need to try before we buy and be 100% satisfied.   

[fumble]

Surely more people are willing to part with 50 quid to realise their dream of replicating BIR curries at home? 

I'd be willing for ?50, assuming there was a limited number of people (maybe a dozen max) and it was a reasonable length of time in order to prepare a base, meat and final curry. In other words a few hours if not a whole day.

I'd have thought that the media would be interested. After all there are countless rubbish cookery programs on TV, surely 'how to cook an authentic curry' is something new?