The Road to Vindaloo: Curry Cook and Curry Books (English Kitchen) - Softcover

This book traces the development of Anglo-Indian cookery, or curry, in English and Scottish cookery books from its earliest appearance in the 18th century through to modern works by Camilla Punjabi and Marguerite Patten. It wanders the lanes and byways of the British occupation of India, unearthing delightful accounts of Imperial eating and explaining how we have grown accustomed to the spice-box of the Raj. The broad intention is to reproduce early recipes for curry and accounts of Anglo-Indian food in their original words. The majority come from printed books, but some are drawn from manuscripts. The narrative traces our enjoyment of Oriental flavours from the 17th century through to the first appearance of a recipe for curry in Hannah Glasse in 1747. Thereafter, it looks at the various classes of cooks who produced popular and interesting recipes, from the female cookbook authors of the 18th century, to the club-cooks of Calcutta and London in the Regency, to the crusty colonels of late Victorian England and the refined French-influenced chefs of the fin de siecle and pre-First World War days. The whole is ornamented by tasty extracts from past literature on eating curries hither and beyond. There are full glossaries and index; illustrations are photographs and prints from old India.

David Burnett was formerly with firms such as Gollancz and Heinemann and is now a publisher in his own right, mainly of food books (including Bill Fowler's Countryman's Cooking). He lives in Ludlow. Helen Saberi is author of Afghan Food & Cookery and co-author of Trifle (both Prospect Books) and was principal assistant to Alan Davidson while he wrote the Oxford Companion to Food.