The House Kitchen

I call myself a curry evangelist because I set out, through my books, my YouTube videos, my building of Mowgli, to show the British public how achievable and simple Indian food really is. It breaks my heart that curry is the UK’s number one dish, but only 10 per cent of the population know how to cook it. It is time that curry belonged to my fellow Brits in the way that spaghetti Bolognese is now an established family member, free from fear and confusion.

The curry houses of the high street are places of grace and obeisance. They were created to please the Western palate. Their chefs are great and they, in their kindness, looked at the way we eat in Britain and made the Indian dishes fit. You like meat and you like a thick gravy, so that is what we will do for you. But I won’t and Mowgli is the antithesis of a normal curry house.