Press

The Leeds Guide: Currying Flavour
By Becky Taylor

Mini interview with Becky Taylor about judging the Leeds Guide’s Curry Awards 2004.

In summer 2004 Tony was invited by The Leeds Guide to join TV presenter Gaynor Barnes, actor Jeremy Child, radio presenter Rossie, journalist Dominic Dwight and nightclub owners James Hudson and Richard Todd in judging the magazine’s annual Curry Awards.

Head of film programming at the NMPFT, Tony occasionally likes to swap the silver screen for a stainless steel thali – but his curry has to be as memorable as his films.

The Leeds Guide: What’s the secret of a good curry?
Tony Earnshaw: If you can still taste it the following day, I think, if it lingers on the tastebuds and doesn’t get washed away by booze or water.

LG: What are your best and worst curry experiences?
TE: I had a curry in America – this was in Phoenix, Arizona, and it was 98 degrees – and it was absolutely awful. I think it was the most abominable food I’ve ever had in my life. We kept asking for more and more water and this stuff just wouldn’t go down.

LG: Chapatti or naan?
TE: Naan. Garlic naan. Chapattis are just a bit too fiddly: I prefer to have something you can wrap your food in.

LG: What’s your heat tolerance?
TE: I’m a complete curry wimp, really. I could never do a vindaloo – I’d be melting. Something between mild and medium.

LG: What unusual ingredient would you most like to try in a curry?
TE: I had a kangaroo steak once, so I don’t see any reason why kangaroo couldn’t be made into a curry as well.

LG: Do you cook curry at home?
TE: Since this is going into print I’ll say yes, but I don’t really. My partner cooks and I just stir things and get in the way.

• This mini interview originally appeared in The Leeds Guide (Nov 3-18 2004) and is reproduced here with the kind permission of The Leeds Guide. (© The Leeds Guide, 2004)