I truly love Indian food and I am not alone. I once asked an Englishman what the national dish of Great Britian was and his unreserved rely was “Curry.”  While it’s not quite as ubiquitous in the USA, Indian food is common throughout the former British empire and the lasting reminder of the absolute power of institutions like the East India Company.

When the Portuguese arrived in India in the 16^th century they were confronted with the wholly different and enticing cuisine of the subcontinent.  Not understanding all the nuances of Indian foods and, frankly, being a little wary of most dishes they began calling all dishes consumed with rice or breads in India “Carrees”, which was derived from the Tamil word Kari.  Kari referred to a unique dish prepared with a specific set of spices in the form of a sauce but in India almost every dish is served with or in a sauce with rice or naan (Indian flatbread).  To the Portuguese, however, they were all classified as “Carries” and for much of the world, “Curry” they have remained ever since.  By the time the British established a presence in India in the 17^th century, everything from kebabs to soups to do-piyajas were all called curries.

Part of this oversimplification was that in the early years of their presence, the British tried to avoid eating Indian food. This is not a situation unique to India.  Soldiers and bureaucrats in outposts all over the world made every attempt to preserve their “pure” Britishness.  This included importing their world renown culinary skills (😊) everywhere in an attempt to “not go native.”  Curry was just one of a wide variety of “native” foods which the British sought to avoid.

Of course, when you are months away from the familiar foods of home, such avoidance, is not completely possible. The ingredients of British foods were often not easily available in India. Moreover, most lower-class British administrators, soldiers and planters who couldn’t afford cooks – especially cooks trained in British culinary styles – and often lacked those skills themselves (have you ever met a Briton who could cook?).  They had to hire local cooks and these cooks came with what they knew – complex foods made with local spices, vegetables, and rice.

The curries consumed by the British, however, were usually altered to suit their tastes. Indian dishes prepared in established regional styles were considered unpalatably spicy by the British, hence local cooks were trained to dilute their recipes to suit British palates by reducing the use of ghee, butter, chili, cardamom, cloves, yogurt and other elements which contributed to the body and spiciness of the various recipes.   Like all things colonial, the British culinary scene in India had become a severely diluted rump of the vast variety of Indian dishes and the British called all of them “curries.”

However, even though they were vastly inferior to the “native” dishes, these “curries” are addictive.  Once you have experienced the complex mingling of aromatic and savory spices, and the complex flavors and textures of Indian cuisine, you begin to crave it.  Its no surprise, then, that when the employees of the East India Company began to return home with their fortunes, one of the plunders they took with them was their cooks.  Indian food had come to Britian, and hence the rest of the empire.

The taste for curries found its way into British everyday life.  The first Indian curry house, known as the Hindoostane Coffee House, opened in Westminster.  By 1823, even the Prince of Wales, later Regent and King George IV enjoyed a fashionable curry from time to time.  By 1824, references to curry powders and spices were common in newspapers.  The British love for curry, and imported Indian labor, was well entrenched.  It quickly to the Caribbean, Canada, South Africa, Australia, and even the new United States.  You even get Asian, African, and Middle Eastern varieties of this dish which were all created by the British import of “curry powder” to spice their foods.

What is interesting about this journey is that there is no such thing as curry powder in 18^th century India. Many Indian chefs consider the notion of ‘curry’ to be outright degrading to India’s great cuisine (similar to the American ‘chop suey’ with respect to Chinese food).  ‘Curry powder’ attempts to oversimplify the cuisine.  The expense of shipping spices to Brittan and her colonies was probably the primary reason why blended, pre-made curry powder became common. Not everyone could afford to buy the individual spices and make their own blends. And while Brits in colonial India had servants to freshly grind spices and select the right combinations for each dish, the average home cook in London or Virginia often relied on commercial curry powder.  The other key driver in the creation of curry powder was cost.  Well-made Indian dishes rely on a large number of often fresh spices. Curry powder to be incorporated into local English produce like sausages, beans, and potatoes (yuck) didn’t have to meet these exacting standards.  In fact, by as early as 1784, commercial curry powder with blends of produced for export. 

So, while “curry powder” is an abomination, it has had a major influence in taking Indian food across the former British Empire in into our homes.  Curry is now a staple in military rations, there are canned and frozen curries in almost every supermarket in the world, and in 2001, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook remarked that Chicken Tikka Masala was the real national dish of Britain. 

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