-Agnes Marshall: From Scullery Maid to Victorian Celebrity Cook by David Smith
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season's greetings from Go4E

Christmas feature         We've written a special feature on the Traditional English Christmas Dinner. Click on one of the Christmas trees to read the article.     Christmas feature

Or take a listen to the podcast from our sister website, Sauces & Sources...





leftover turkey recipes

There's a selection of recipes to use up all that leftover turkey from Christmas on The Curry House website. The recipes including our famous recipe for Classic British Turkey Curry, Roast Turkey Shami Kebabs and Turkey Jalfrezi.




out now in paperback & on Kindle



How to Get a Curry in Victorian London

How to Get a Curry in Victorian London


If you like curry, you have more in common with the Victorians than you might think. Their love of Indian dishes began with the officers and officials of the East India Company. These men enjoyed spicy meals in India, and still wanted to eat their favourites when they returned to Britain. Queen Victoria helped to further popularise the craze for all things Indian, regularly enjoying curries cooked by her own Indian chefs.

This short guide will take you to the cigar-filled gentlemen's clubs and the elegant, high-class hotel restaurants serving curries made by Indian chefs; the noisy, aromatic warehouses where Indian entrepreneurs stored their imported spices; the sell-out audiences watching demonstrations of curry-making by experts in Indian cooking; and the cookery schools where domestic cooks employed in middle-class homes learned how to make curry. You'll also learn how curry powder made Indian-style meals more affordable (and less authentic), and why it could be a health risk.

Curry in Victorian London was not available to everyone; it very much depended on your social class, gender and wealth. Spices were too expensive for the working classes, and only middle- and upper-class men were welcome in gentlemen's clubs and hotel restaurants (it was not socially acceptable for women to dine out without a male escort until the 1880s). But the British love affair with curry is firmly rooted in the Victorian period.

The paperback edition of the guide runs to 65 pages, and costs £5.99. The Kindle edition is only £1.99

find out more...


Christmas time in London

The Christmas display at Fortnum and Mason - looking down from the first floor to the Christmas tree in the basement. A trip to Fortnum's to stock up on some edible goodies is one of my pre-Christmas rituals.

Fortnum and Mason Christmas display

The Curry House Cookery Book