This book really opened my eyes as to how easy BIR (British Indian Restaurant) cooking can be and how to get good tasting curries right at home. I'm confused why Sayce refers to the base of a curry as gravy and a few other points, but the recipes are thorough and helpful. Instead, I rely on using the jars, with their limited supply of recipes, which adorn the supermarket shelves.

I’ve enjoyed reading the comprehensive introduction to the book, learning about the specialist ingredients, how to source them and advice for cooking equipment. I ended up having cooking nights with a few different people (COVID-safe of course), so it was fun even with all of the complicated things and having to fudge ingredients. Anyone who has eaten at one of the many hundreds of Indian restaurants in Britain knows how fabulous the curries are there. It even goes into the differences about why a restaurant / takeaway curry tastes better than a homecooked one (with a lot of it down to cooking heat) and why it is a good idea to pre-cook chicken for use later in your curry.And if you are more of a visual cook or just want to see how it is done, on each recipe page is a QR code that you can scan to see a video (with instructions) of each dish being made. Many thanks to Literally PR for inviting me to join the book tour and for my gifted copy of Curry Compendium, what an inspiring cookbook with very tasty recipes. A simple and straightforward recipe book that is easy to read, understand and follow, without being pretentious. Disclosure: I received this item for free for the purposes of writing an honest and impartial review.

Overall, if you love a curry, especially from an Indian restaurant, and would love to recreate the taste of a BIR style meal at home, then Richard Sayce’s (aka Misty Ricardo) Curry Compendium is definitely the recipe book to own. That being said, I have never backed down from a challenge, and the ability to try and cook out of this cookbook was exactly that – a huge challenge.

Curry Compendium by Richard Sayce is the definitive guide to recreating British Indian Restaurant favourites from the comfort of your own home. Readers benefit from supporting YouTube tutorials for the majority of recipes, each with a QR code to scan with a smartphone/tablet to watch online instantly.