Can we say the British invented curry? Not exactly to be honest, but we certainly named it and popularised it all over the world.

Curry as a word emerged on the 18th century, when the British traders first travelled to the subcontinent and amazed by the exotic sauces they were seeing, they asked about their name and the answer was “kari”.  The word itself means sauce in the Tamil language, but it didn’t take too long for the new English word Curry to spread among Indian people, and as easy as that a culinary legend was born!

While the British were in India they demanded hybrid curries that were more suited to their taste and so many recipes were adapted to suit the English palate.  It is a falsehood that the British created curry, but it’s true that they were curry enthusiasts, and thanks to that they spread this amazing mixture of spices all over the world.

A good example of the British curry passion is that in 1953 a curry derivative dish was created to commemorate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, it was named “Coronation Chicken”.

This half British origin of curry is the reason why it’s adored by so many British people.  So we say thank you to India for letting us adopt your national dish as if it was our own!