Here’s some fantastic news I wanted to share: Curry Compendium has won a Gourmand World Cookbook Award – Best UK Published Asian Cookbook (outside of Asia).

Lockdown saw a surge in people trying to recreate restaurant flavours at home – and now Brits want more inspiration as they get bolder in the kitchen. If you’re looking to reproduce BIR (British Indian Restaurant) style curry you’re in the right place. I endeavoured to finally master the art of creating excellent BIR style curry, and with time and a lot of experimentation, finally gained enough skill and knowledge to be happy with sharing my experiences. At the beginning of the book is some information about ingredients, equipment and alternatives, and it isn't pretentious. All the recipes featured in the book are all backed up with detailed and comprehensive informational chapters: everything you need to learn the art of BIR curry cooking.

The mockup images you see don’t really do justice to the finished product – the high calibre finishing involves embossing and headbands. As I said at the start, I am not a cook in any way shape or form (for me to cook a curry, it would be throwing a ready meal in the microwave), but I found this book very easy to follow and the instructions easy to comprehend.

The recipes even have some authors notes on them, just giving little hints and tips or information on what ingredients can be substituted for others etc.Being an independent publisher has its challenges: marketing the books is difficult when you don’t have the clout of a major commercial publisher, who can summon up radio interviews, full page national newspaper spreads, and even TV appearances.