Spice of life for the Curry Guy who gets family to eat nothing but Indian food for two years.

Dan Toombs's family ate nothing but Indian food for two years and now he has written a book. Catherine Scott meets The Curry Guy.

Dan Toombs just loves curry.

Not the authentic cuisine found in Indian and Pakistan but the dishes developed for the English palate at the hundreds of restaurants across the UK.

And now he has written a book to help people create their favourite curry house dish at home.

Dan Toombs is the self styled Curry Guy from Yarm. For two years he cooked nothing but Indian food for him and his family, wife Caroline, Katy, Joe and Jennifer,  for a blog he was writing.  Picture Tony Johnson.Dan Toombs is the self styled Curry Guy from Yarm. For two years he cooked nothing but Indian food for him and his family, wife Caroline, Katy, Joe and Jennifer,  for a blog he was writing.  Picture Tony Johnson.
Dan Toombs is the self styled Curry Guy from Yarm. For two years he cooked nothing but Indian food for him and his family, wife Caroline, Katy, Joe and Jennifer, for a blog he was writing. Picture Tony Johnson.
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“I have always loved cooking,” says the father of three who moved to the UK from America more than 20 years ago.

“I was born and raised in California where I was introduced to great food young. My grandfather passed down to me all of the family recipes while I was growing up and so began a love for cooking that has made life very enjoyable and tasty too.

“After learning and cooking each of our family recipes, I began to experiment with Mexican and Chinese cooking. I loved the spices and different techniques used and carefully set out to learn and memorise the different flavours and techniques.”

Dan moved to London with his work in promotional merchandising before moving to Wiltshire and more recently Yorkshire.

Dan Toombs in this kitchen. Picture Tony Johnson.Dan Toombs in this kitchen. Picture Tony Johnson.
Dan Toombs in this kitchen. Picture Tony Johnson.

It was here he fell in love with Indian food.

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“When I first came to Britain I tasted Indian food and loved it. You can’t get it in California so I had been missing out,” he recalls.

‘I tried cooking at home but I had no idea there was a difference between traditional Indian recipes and the takeaway version.”

He soon realised the British takeaway food he loved was actually far removed from the traditional recipes he was following in cook books.

Dan Toombs is the self styled Curry Guy from Yarm. For two years he cooked nothing but Indian food for him and his family, wife Caroline, Katy, Joe and Jennifer,  for a blog he was writing.  Picture Tony Johnson.Dan Toombs is the self styled Curry Guy from Yarm. For two years he cooked nothing but Indian food for him and his family, wife Caroline, Katy, Joe and Jennifer,  for a blog he was writing.  Picture Tony Johnson.
Dan Toombs is the self styled Curry Guy from Yarm. For two years he cooked nothing but Indian food for him and his family, wife Caroline, Katy, Joe and Jennifer, for a blog he was writing. Picture Tony Johnson.

And so he set about trying to recreate the dishes he loved in the many Indian restaurants he visited and decided to put his recipes together in a blog he named the Curry Guy in 2010

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“I managed to get a few of the chefs to share their recipes, which isn’t easy as many of them are closely guarded secrets.

‘It started out as a hobby but then I got to a point where I wanted to learn more and become better at cooking Indian food,” explains Dan who now lives in Yarm with his wife Caroline, and their three children Katy, 20, Joe, 18, and Jennifer, 13

The challenge was getting people to read his blog.

Dan Toombs in this kitchen. Picture Tony Johnson.Dan Toombs in this kitchen. Picture Tony Johnson.
Dan Toombs in this kitchen. Picture Tony Johnson.

“It was still pretty much early days when it came to blogging, although there were a few food bloggers out there. I knew if I was going to be able to do anything with it then I had to do something a bit different to draw attention to it.”

It was then he came up with the idea of getting the entire family to live on Indian food for a year.

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“The family thought it was just another of my silly ideas, but actually they loved the food. It wasn’t just curries. I learnt how to make all sorts of things, and the children really took it on board, cooking with me, it was a great way to get them into the kitchen and learning about food.”

Throughout his challenge he learned 500 recipes, based on meals he had eaten in takeaways and not on their traditional counterparts.

It still took a while for interest in his blog to take off, but then, just as the year was nearly up a couple of national newspapers caught on to Dan’s story.

People then started to ask me lots of questions about my recipes and everyone seemed quite happy with it and so we thought we’d extend it. In the end we nearly did two years, although I have a feeling the children may have had the odd burger while out with friends.”

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Five years on and Dan still cooks the family a curry two or three times a week. And this month he published his cookery book The Curry Guy – Recreate over 100 of the best British Indian Restaurant recipes at home.

“People kept asking me how to make curries like the ones they get from a takeaway or in their favourite Indian restaurant,” explains Dan.

“I had to go back and remake all the curries so that we could photograph them for the book.”I have learned a lot doing it. That was the whole idea. I have never been to India, I just love the food, but I would love to go one day.”

Dan now has followers across the globe, including, ironically a following in India.

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‘Through my blog I have been given recipes from people all over the world and been invited to cook with chefs at a few restaurants, so I am very grateful I love to experiment with flavours and give traditional Indian recipes new life. I always credit any chef or restaurant that gives me a recipe, even if I change it a bit. It works for both of us.”

Dan says his curries are a lot healthier than the traditional curries where a lot of oil or ghee is used.

“Oil is a great transmitter of flavour so I cook in the same way but then try to get as much of the oil off the top as possible to make it a healthier version.. The oil can then be used again.”

As well as writing the blog, and book and making guest appearance at food festivals, Dan and his wife Caroline run cookery holidays in France.

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“We were approached by a couple of villas in France who wanted to run cookery course for three or four days and we thought it sounded like a great idea,” says Dan, who will be at the Great British Food Festival at Harewood House this weekend and the Yorkshire Post Food & Drink Festival on June 4..

And he has another recipe book if the offing, this time focusing on curries in a hurry.

Rule 1: Only use the freshest ingredients you can get your hands on. Even the best chefs in the world can’t do much with stale spices and poor-quality meat and vegetables. We are so lucky to have excellent farmers’ markets, butchers, fishmongers and spice suppliers here in the UK. Use them.

Rule 2: Take an afternoon to make the base ingredients. Only the base curry sauce needs to be made from scratch to get that awesome texture, aroma and flavour that is the BIR (British Indian Restaurant) curry. Others like garlic and ginger paste and the spice blends can be purchased commercially. Remember, though: fresh is best and you will notice a difference in the end result.

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Rule 3: Add the ingredients in the order specified in Dan’s recipes

Rule 4: Have fun! Choose a time to cook when you really feel like cooking. You’ll enjoy it much more.

■ The Curry Guy – Recreate over 100 of the best British Indian Restaurant recipes at home by Dan Toombs is publilshed by Quadrille £12.99

www.greatcurryrecipes.net