Talk:Curry

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

The subject of Curry has been extensively debated on this talk page.

Before adding any more threads, please look to see if your question has been asked and answered already.

To help you, here are a few of the most frequently asked questions.

Aren't curries necessarily Indian?

Many styles of curry are eaten in India, but Indian restaurants outside the country serve food adapted to local tastes. Outside India, curries are often prepared with curry powder rather than freshly ground spices, and cooked much more simply. Southeast Asian curries use ingredients like pork and pineapple not used in Indian curries.

Isn't "curry" just a synonym for Tamil kari?

No, that's an etymological fallacy. The English word is derived, possibly indirectly, from Tamil kari, but the English and international dish(es) have changed in many ways from Dravidian cuisine.

Why mention British influence on an Indian dish?

Because Anglo-Indians adopted a version of curry, and British traders brought curry to England in the 17th century. From there it went to the Caribbean and to Japan in the 19th century, becoming the international dish it is today.

Why all this talk of cultural exchange?

Spices came to India in ancient trade from Southeast Asia. Key curry ingredients – chili peppers, tomatoes, and potatoes – arrived in trade from the Americas, after Columbus's voyage. Before the 16th century, Indian dishes were spiced with nothing hotter than ordinary pepper. The English traded curry around the world. Other nations like Japan adopted the dish in their own way. Every time, the dishes were adapted to local cultures.

Link to reading list

A large list is available in the archive, should anyone need it. Chiswick Chap (talk) 10:34, 15 February 2026 (UTC)

"Ongoing References and Reading List for Curry"

Chicken Tikka Masala was not created in the UK

In the lede section, remove "others modified or wholly invented, as with chicken tikka masala, likely created by British Indian restaurants in the 20th century." If "others modified or wholly invented" is to be kept, find a better example.

Edited the lead. Chiswick Chap (talk) 08:21, 17 April 2026 (UTC)

Evidence in support of this edit (We don't have to list all this evidence, but the summary of it is valuable)

Not really. Talk page threads should be kept brief; it isn't great to inject lists of materials here.

• The idea of it being invented in the UK is popular based on a frequently repeated lie.
• The point of views of numerous Indian historians, chefs, and food authors which disagree this view strongly.
• International authors and historians which note the disputed origins.
• International media, including the BBC considers the Indian origins of the dish as a viable possibility.
• The Chicken Tikka Masala has an oddly similar and specific combination of items and supposed origin story as the extremely similar dish, butter chicken, was invented least two decades before: invented by chance, to soften dry tandoori chicken, using a tomato and cream-based gravy.
• The family of the restaurant in India which is credited as the inventor of the very similar dish called butter chicken claim that they have been also been serving chicken tikka masala since before the 1950s.
• Butter chicken was already popular amongst a lot of Indians (including the elites such as Jawaharlal Nehru himself, and was served during his time in state banquets) well before the 1960s/1970s.
• People familiar with Indian cuisine see the dish as a version, adaptation, or derivative of butter chicken, and the Bangladesh-born restaurateur Iqbal Wahhab (also the mayor of High Sherriff of Greater London) who co-created the UK-origin myth together with Peter Grove unambiguously states that Chicken tikka masala has its roots in India and not the UK: “The dish actually derives from Old Delhi, where it is known as Murgh Makhni, or butter chicken,”
• Wikipedia's own page on Chicken Tikka Masala notes the dispute.
• Peter Grove, the British food historian and South Asian cuisine specialist himself notes that “Along with Iqbal Wahhab, now of Roast Restaurant, I started the urban myth of CTM being tikka with added Campbell’s tomato soup and spices for a joke,” ... “Yet somehow it has become accepted as the official explanation the world over.”. It is noted that it was the constant search for a definite and compelling British origin story—something that would adequately situate and fuse chicken tikka masala into the nation—that drove him to make up the tale. “and he unambiguously states that it is derived from the butter chicken, and notes that an Indian origin of the chicken tikka masala format itself is possible.

This trail of evidence points much more strongly to an India-based origin than a UK origin. Do not delete or archive this discussion without mutual agreement. I had flagged this issue earlier and was waiting for Chiswick Chap to discuss and incorporate this edit. unsigned edit by User:Darkfruit 07:32, 16 April 2026

Thanks for discussing. Clearly the evidence is inconclusive; no scholar has stated definitively that the dish did arise in India, for the good reason that they can't prove it. The recipes are clearly similar, but that is at best circumstantial evidence. The recipes could have been created independently; or there might have been a dim memory in a cook's mind of a dish from their childhood; or the dish could have been deliberately recreated and renamed to suit a British clientele: we don't know. The repetition of multiple Indian sources saying it seems like butter chicken doesn't prove anything either: it may seem like that to them, and they too may be copying each other (as often happens with news sources and blogs everywhere). As for Peter Grove's opinion and story, there is clearly an inconsistency in there, as well as an element of joking, so it is impossible to say where the truth lies among his statements. As I've said above, I've edited the lead to avoid the claim. Chiswick Chap (talk) 08:21, 17 April 2026 (UTC)

I think this article should avoid getting embroiled in what is a disputed fact, that is unlikely to ever be proven one way or another. The Chicken tikka masala article does a reasonable job of presenting the alternatives with sources. This article should simply reflect, as briefly as practical, what is said there and let the reader dive deeper into it there, if they're interested.. --Escape Orbit ^(Talk) 11:08, 17 April 2026 (UTC)

As I said some months ago, I think this was resolved already. Chiswick Chap (talk) 10:40, 14 August 2026 (UTC)

I think you're in the wrong discussion. --Escape Orbit ^(Talk) 10:52, 14 August 2026 (UTC)

No, to quote this exact discussion (look above) "As I've said above, I've edited the lead to avoid the claim." If you're discussing something else, you're in the wrong place. Chiswick Chap (talk) 11:46, 14 August 2026 (UTC)

Adding the Telugu word Kura as part of the etymology and minor edit for the Q/A

The moderators rejected the suggested edit earlier. Kura, whilst it may not be related to the Tamil word kari still/can refer(s) to the dish curry.

From

dsal.chicago.edu/cgi-bin/app/brown_query.py?page=304#gsc.tab=0

which is the first dictionary published by British officer CP Brown from Telugu to English, kura: A herb, herbs, vegetables, garden stuff. A mess of food, curry even including flesh.

As a native speaker of the language, I can attest that the word predates the English word curry (which is recorded later than the DEDR entry) and was always used to refer to the dish (which is often cooked with the ingredients mentioned above). Not sure why one of the mods claimed the English word influenced it without evidence.

PS: this is a minor edit but I had to point this out too. I don’t mean to be pedantic, but in the talk page, the Q/A claims all spices came to India. This is false since spices like black pepper, cardamom, turmeric and vegetables/aromatics like ginger are native to India. I will also add that long pepper (possibly imported from SEA) along with regular black pepper was used as a heat agent since long pepper is more piquant than regular pepper. Thanks for the discussion. Foodlover151 (talk) 01:01, 14 August 2026 (UTC)

Just to clarify whilst the FAQ doesn’t necessarily claim all spices came from SEA to India, I just wanted to point out that the language used may be interpreted as inaccurate. Foodlover151 (talk) 01:04, 14 August 2026 (UTC)

Sorry, the link for the source added isn’t working. So I am sharing it here again. Thanks.

https://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/app/brown_query.py?qs=%E0%B0%95%E0%B1%82%E0%B0%B0&searchhws=yes&matchtype=exact#gsc.tab=0 Foodlover151 (talk) 01:16, 14 August 2026 (UTC)

Yet another error I want to point out is that the faq claims there’s no pork or pineapple in Indian curries. Pineapple is certainly quite rare in Indian curries but pork is quite ubiquitous in the cuisines of Karnataka in regions like Coorg, Tamil Nadu, much of the Indian North East states. The article ignores quite a lot of nuances when it comes to regional Indian cooking. I hope the article takes into account actual Indian cooking rather than interpretations based on BIR from western editors. Cheers. Foodlover151 (talk) 02:37, 14 August 2026 (UTC)

It isn't allowed for editors to infer that a word *must be* related or *could well be* involved in the derivation, etc, nor may we "attest" from any kind of personal knowledge: all such approaches are called Original Research and is forbidden throughout Wikipedia. You are correct that the text does not make the claim of "all spices came..."; nor does the FAQ mention pork or pineapple: so those issues do not arise. Chiswick Chap (talk) 09:27, 14 August 2026 (UTC)

Whether the Telugu word may be the original source for the topic of this article is, as Chiswick Chap says, speculation and original research. All your source demonstrates is that Telugu has its own word for "curry", to which we can say "So what?". This is the English language Wikipedia, not a translation dictionary. You first need a reliable source that discusses the etymology of both. (Also, no-one here is a moderators, we're all just editors following policy.) --Escape Orbit ^(Talk) 09:56, 14 August 2026 (UTC)