Patrick Lawrence Chapman (20 December 1940 – 22 July 2022) was an English food writer, broadcaster and author, best known for founding The Curry Club.[1]
Chapman was born in London during the Blitz. 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 four schools.
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.
He disliked afternoon sports and opted to do 'Outdoor Work' (O.W) 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 (with black bodies and a white-collar and front hooves). Pat chose to work at the piggery and' or the dairy (he learned to hand-milk and machine milk the cows) for his O.W. The farm supplied the school with meat, milk, fruits and vegetables.
Since being taken to a pantomime at the London Palladium, aged 10 or so, he became intrigued by all things backstage. He followed this by taking a course at the Central School of Speech and Drama, now renamed as The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Laurence Olivier and Peggy Ashcroft were Central's most famous alumni, though they were students (in 1925), long before Pat's time there. Pat's most celebrated contemporaries included Julie Christie and James Bolam.
As a teenager, Pat first obtained work during school holidays as an electrical stage hand at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith then as a light board operator in West End theatre land, obtaining a highly coveted NATKE union card. (The National Association of Theatrical Television and Kine Employees, which represented employees who worked in theatres, cinemas and television.) NATKE is now known as Unison.
On leaving drama 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.
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 (latterly part of Middlesex University) 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, The Claws of Axos in 1970/1.
Chapman and his crews provided lighting and sound systems for an eclectic mix of rock, heavy metal, pop and glam rock groups, including 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, and spent the next four years consulting to a number of major entertainment multiples including 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 for the British Raj. Chapman inherited their interest in the country, her history, her food and curry in particular. He visited the subcontinent more than 40 times.[2]
After he left school, Chapman's friends, knowing his passion for the subject, asked him to teach them the secrets of spices and their cooking. 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 Honey Magazine and currently a contributor to the Times Group wrote a piece on curry featuring the (then) non-existent Curry Club with recipes by Chapman. Time it was started. She had in effect kicked started The Curry Club.
Chapman frequently demonstrated curry, held regular curry cookery courses and took small groups of curry enthusiasts to India to visit a region and sample its cuisine.
From 2008, Chapman was 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[3] to create recipes which add spice to top British Regional favourite dishes.
From 2012 he was a trustee of the Cobra Foundation,[4] 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,[5] of which he is the longstanding Chairman of Judges. However, since he had a cold and was 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."[6] [7]
On 22 November 2020 it was planned that Sanjay Anand of Madhu's Caterers and Restaurants[8] would present this Lifetime Achievement Award to Pat Chapman in conjunction with Yawar Khan[9] owner Akash Tandoori Restaurant, Wallington, Surrey[10] and founder The Asian Catering Federation and Awards.[11] Because of COVID-19 this presentation was postponed due to the pandemic and the award was delivered to Chapman's home in Surrey.
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.
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[12]
Chapman appeared on British television many times, including on the shows Who'll Do The Pudding?, This Morning, Food and Drink, Great Food Live[13] and Good Food Live. He also had a regular spot on the Good Morning with Anne and Nick show.[14]