Selling curry back to India - Fleet Tandoori chef Abdul Rob heads to Kolkata for food festival

Published: 14 April 2011
by DAN CARRIER

A CHEF is packing his pans and heading to India to showcase Camden curry.

Abdul Rob, who has worked at the Fleet Tandoori restaurant in South End Green for 12 years, was selected from hundreds of hopefuls across the country to represent Britain at a food festival in Kolkata – and will now be showing off his skills at the birthplace of curry.

Mr Rob, who will travel east this week, entered a competition organised by trade magazine Curry Life and is one of four British chefs making the journey.

He said: “I am really looking forward to seeing quite how different the food I prepare is from the top chefs in India. 

“We are going there to showcase our own creative dishes and show our general knowledge of how curries are cooked in Britain, and hopefully pick up some Indian techniques.”

The curry festival, which is held in a five-star hotel, lasts for 10 days and Mr Rob will be cooking each day for top chefs who want to try out Anglicised dishes.

He plans to use recipes that are tried and tested in the Fleet Road restaurant which have proved a hit with nearby residents and staff at the Royal Free hospital opposite. 

Among those who have sung his praises are TV chef Gordon Ramsay, who he has cooked for, and regular customers Radio One DJ Chris Moyles, comedian Russell Brand, New Labour media boss Alastair Campbell and former Dr Who Sylvester McCoy.

Mr Rob said: “I am not nervous, I have been developing these dishes for so long I know exactly what I am doing.”

He says that British curry is a world away from what is served up in India. 

Mr Rob added: “If you went to India and asked for a tikka masala, people would ask you what it is. 

“Another example is the fact that Balti comes from Birmingham. Curries there are more spiced and not as sweet.”

As with many Indian restaurants in London, Mr Rob and former South Camden School pupil Mahbub Khan, whose family own the restaurant, are of Bangladeshi origin. 

It means they draw on their country’s rich food heritage and give it a British twist.

Mr Khan said: “Around 99 per cent of Indian curry houses are run by people from Bangladesh. We do draw on this but we also have lots of other styles.”