Curry originated in the Indian subcontinent. The word comes from the Indian Tamil word “Kari” meaning a sauce or soup to be eaten with rice. Curry comprises a mix of these main spices: coriander, turmeric, cumin, and red chili.
The popularity of curry in Britain can be traced to the 18th century (see our Story of Spice) when British bureaucrats and traders who had been in India wished to continue to enjoy curries when they returned to Britain. In 1733 curry was being served in an establishment called the Norris Street Coffee House in Haymarket, London.
According to the website Historic UK, by the 1840s vendors of Indian products attempted to convince the British public of the benefits that curry had for their health. These merchants suggested that curry aided digestion increased blood circulation and improved concentration.
During the period 1820 to 1840, curry became so popular as it was considered a convenient way to use leftover cold meat. The import of turmeric, one of the ingredients often used when cooking a curry, tripled because of demand!
The uprising in 1857-1858 against the rule of the British East India Company, however, changed the British attitude towards India and ‘curry’ lost favour amongst the British public officials, although curry was still served in the army mess and clubs.
Biographer and novelist, A. N. Wilson, comments on how Queen Victoria was fascinated by India, when she and her husband Prince Albert, were served a meal of curry by one of her Indian servants, Abdul Karim. Queen Victoria was very impressed with the chicken curry, daal and pilau rice that was cooked for her.
Apparently, Queen Victoria’s Grandson, George V, didn’t have any interest in food but he relished curry and Bombay duck, which is not a duck but a small dried fish from Bangladesh and India. George V’s favourite dish was chicken curry.
By the 1940s and 1950s, the larger Indian restaurants in London employed ex-seamen from Bangladesh. After the Second world war, these Bangladeshi’s bought damaged fish and chip shops and cafes, they then started to serve curry and rice along with fish, pies and chips. This enabled the opening of restaurants and as they remained open after 11.00pm, they benefitted from the post-pub trade; thereafter eating a curry when the pub had closed became a tradition! As customers started to eat more curry, these restaurants stopped selling fish and chips.
The late Peter Groves, the co-founder of National Curry Week, suggests that by 1971 Bangladeshi immigrants who had come to the UK now own 65%-75% of ‘Indian’ restaurants in the UK. Apparently, there are now more Indian restaurants in Greater London than in the cities of Mumbai and Delhi.
Debarata Mukherjee writing for Historic UK notes that curry has become so popular in the UK that it contributes to £5 billion to the British economy!
In her book ‘Star of India – The Spicy Adventures of Curry’, Jo Monroe writes “Curry isn’t just a dish, it’s a great British institution.” According to Jo Monroe, curry has travelled through the British Empire to the many thousands of restaurants on many high streets of the UK, especially throughout the decades of the 1980s and 1990s; some of which have earned Michelin stars for their haute cuisine! Jo Monroe also adds that ‘the journey of curry has gone a full circle as British dishes like ‘chicken tikka masala’ and Patak’s curry pastes are now being exported back to India’!
Every year, during the first week of October, National Curry Week is celebrated in the UK.
What an extraordinary journey for Curry!
