Pat Chapman


Patrick Lawrence Chapman is an English food writer, broadcaster and author, best known for founding The Curry Club.

Early days

Chapman was born in London during the Blitz. His grandfather had achieved senior rank in the British Indian Army; his father served in the wartime Merchant Navy and his mother was a former midwifery training sister at Queen Charlotte's Hospital London, before running her own maternity nursing home in Ealing. His primary education was dysfunctional, with him going to no fewer than four schools. As a chorister at a local church, he auditioned to join the Westminster Abbey Choir School but failed because he had been watching trams driving around Westminster on a very smoggy evening, which clogged up his voice. Had he passed, he would have sung at Queen Elizabeth II's coronation ceremony in June 1953.
Instead, his secondary education was at Bedales School whose headmaster, Hector Jacks, said that he would never pass A-Level examinations, which turned out to be true.
Bedales, the countryside and the farm were revelations for a 13 year old London boy, born and bred in the concrete jungle of Ealing. He disliked afternoon sports and opted to do 'Outdoor Work' instead. At the time the Bedales farm was fully operational with a herd of Friesian cows, poultry and sheep. It also had a piggery at the south west corner of the estate, with its own pigman and a number of pedigree Wessex Saddleback pigs. Pat chose to work at the piggery and' or the dairy for his O.W. The farm supplied the school with meat, milk and fruit and vegetables.
In the school holidays, as a teenager, he obtained work as an electrical stage hand / light board operator in West End theatre land, obtaining a highly coveted NATKE union card.
On leaving school, he worked full-time in the theatre, including stage management at the Belgrade Theatre Coventry, where from time to time he was required to play bit parts, and he actually 'trod the boards' with the likes of Ian McKellen, David Warner and Edina Ronay. He followed this by joining the Royal Air Force where he trained as a fast jet pilot. He then worked for six years on sales and marketing at Lesney Products, during which time he went to night school at Enfield Tech obtaining an HNC in Business Studies and a Diploma from the Chartered Institute of Marketing. This led to his being accepted as a mature student at Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge reading economics. At the same time he started the stage lighting and sound company, Entec. In 1968 his company established itself by providing the lighting for Cambridge May Balls, as well as performing liquid light shows for BBC Television, including a six-month contract on Top of the Pops and a four-part Doctor Who story, Claws of Axos in 1970/1. Chapman was a pioneer in touring lighting for rock acts and festivals, introducing techniques which are in use to this day. Chapman and his crews provided lighting and sound systems for an eclectic mix of rock, heavy metal, pop and glam rock groups, including, to name some, The Carpenters, Bing Crosby, Black Sabbath, Ray Conniff, Dusty Springfield, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Mud, The New Seekers, Lou Reed, Status Quo, Rod Stewart, Sweet, Ike and Tina Turner and Wings. In 1979 Chapman's investor, the Marquee Club’s Harold Pendleton, took over Chapman's Entec interests. He moved to Haslemere, Surrey, where he still lives, and spent the next four years consulting to a number of major entertainment multiples the like of Mecca Leisure Group, Rank Ballrooms, Warner Bros. and Pontins, both in the UK and overseas, advising on the equipping and installation of lighting and sound systems.
Branches of Chapman's family had lived in India from 1715 to 1935, first working for the East India Company then the British Raj. Chapman inherited their deep-rooted interest in the country, her history, her food and curry in particular. After he left school, Pat's friends, knowing his passion for the subject, asked him to teach them the secrets of spices and their cooking. At that time little information had been published on the subject of curry, yet national interest in the subject was emerging. He decided to set up a club as the vehicle to exchange information. In 1981 Chapman's friend and writing mentor, columnist Carol Sarler, then editor of the best-selling Honey Magazine wrote a piece on curry featuring the non-existent Curry Club with recipes by Chapman, after which the Curry Club was founded on 1 January 1982. Many like-minded people have joined the Curry Club since it began and come from every continent including Asia. Membership is a cross-section of the British public.

Currently

Chapman frequently demonstrates curry, holds regular curry cookery courses and from time to time takes small groups of curry enthusiasts to India to visit a region and sample its cuisine.
Since 2008 Chapman has been an active member of the Army Benevolent Fund committee, specifically to help with fund-raising for their annual Big Curry event.
For the 2010 National Curry Week celebrations he was commissioned by Cobra Beer to create recipes which add spice to top British Regional favourite dishes.
Since 2012 he has been a trustee of the Cobra Foundation, an independent charity supported my Molson Coors and Cobra Beer to distribute funds to young people in South Asia by providing health, education, community support.
On 17 November 2019 Chapman was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Asian Curry Awards from the Asian Catering Federation, of which he is the longstanding Chairman of Judges. Too ill to attend in person, fellow judge George Shaw accepted the award on his behalf saying, "Everyone who works in the curry sector owes Pat a huge debt and never has a Lifetime Achievement Award so been richly deserved."

To come

On 22 November 2020 it is planned that Sanjay Anand of Madhu's Caterers and Restaurants will present this Lifetime Achievement Award to Pat Chapman in conjunction with Yawar Khan owner Akash Tandoori Restaurant, Wallington, Surrey and founder The Asian Catering Federation and Awards.

Writing

Chapman's first cookery book, The Indian Restaurant Cookbook, was published in 1984 and is still in print. To date Chapman has written some 36 books, with international sales exceeding 2 million copies. Most are on Curry, but some of his other books cover cuisines such as Thai, Chinese, Middle Eastern and International spicy cuisines. His Balti Cookbook was the first on the subject and became a Sunday Times Number 1 bestseller. Food writer Rosemary Stark's review in the Daily Mail said "Chapman is responsible for Baltifying Britain".
Chapman built up a database on Indian restaurants, which as of 2018 contained over 10,000 entries. In 1984, this led to the publication of the Good Curry Guide, a critique of the top 1,000 UK curry restaurants. It has been sponsored by Cobra Beer since 1992, and was cited by the Oxford English Dictionary for usage of the word balti David Frost said on his breakfast TV programme "it tells you everything you want to know about curry" and Delia Smith wrote, in The Mail on Sunday's You Magazine "with it he has done the nation a real service".

Television appearances

Chapman has appeared on British television many times, including on the shows Who'll Do The Pudding?, This Morning, Food and Drink, Great Food Live and Good Food Live. He also had a regular spot on the Good Morning with Anne and Nick show.

Books

To see pictures of the following books, go to Eat Your Books! Pat Chapman https://www.eatyourbooks.com/authors/6828/pat-chapman or to see pictures of the following books and check availability, go to Amazon Books, Pat Chapman https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=pat+chapman&ref=nb_sb_noss_1