The Last Day of My Fifties.

The Last Day of My Fifties & Tomorrow I turn sixty.

Today is the last day of my fifties, and it seemed like a good moment to pause for a minute and look back on a journey that has taken up more of my life than I probably ever expected — my love of curry.

Like many people in the UK, my relationship with curry started in a local curry house. The smell of spices, the sizzle of food coming out of a hot pan, and that unmistakable flavour that somehow tasted better at 10 o’clock at night than anything you could cook at home.

At some point along the way it turned into a bit of an obsession. I started wondering how those curry houses managed to create those flavours so quickly and consistently. That curiosity slowly turned into experimenting in my own kitchen, learning about base gravies, spice blends, and the unique style of cooking that makes British Indian Restaurant food what it is.

There were plenty of disasters along the way, of course — sauces that didn’t work, spices that didn’t quite balance, and more than a few curries that didn’t taste anything like the takeaway versions I was trying to recreate.

But that’s part of the fun of cooking. You learn, you tweak things, and eventually something clicks.

Somewhere along that road, the idea for Stevie’s Curry Magic was born. What started as a personal fascination slowly turned into a place where I could share what I’d learned with other people who love curry just as much as I do.

And here we are.

On the last day of my fifties, still learning, still cooking, and still chasing that perfect curry house flavour.

Celebrating Life

The Early Curry House Days

Saturday night… well actually Friday. Sometimes Monday. To be honest, any night of the week could turn into a curry night back then.

If someone suggested heading out for a proper curry in Winchester, nobody needed asking twice. Before long a few of us would be piling into town, or making the short trip over to The Shapla in Alresford.

It was usually the same order too — a chicken tikka, a spicy madras, papadums and pickles thrown in for good measure. Simple, but somehow it always tasted incredible.

The weekends were usually a fairly boozy affair. Like most people in their twenties, the weekend didn’t really start on Friday — it started on Thursday and often carried on until Sunday.

My poor liver probably remembers those days better than I do.

But I’m fairly sure most English lads and lasses of that age were living much the same life. Nights out with friends, a few drinks, and very often finishing the evening in an Indian restaurant.

Looking back now, I think those nights quietly planted the seed for what would eventually become my curry journey.

When the Kitchen Experiments Began

The kitchen experiments really began on my 25th birthday.

A girlfriend at the time gave me a bag full of spices as a present. To be honest, I don’t think she realised quite what she was starting.

Full of enthusiasm, I hurried straight into the kitchen convinced I was about to cook the best curry I’d ever tasted.

I threw in the spices, stirred everything together, and waited for the magic to happen.

It didn’t.

It was absolutely horrible.

In fact, it was so bad it gave me the perfect excuse to head straight back out for a proper curry at The Shapla.

But that little disaster did spark something. I realised that if I really wanted to understand how to cook great curry, I needed to learn properly.

So I went out and bought my first proper curry cookbook — The Complete Indian Cookbook by Mridula Baljekar.

I still have that book today, and in many ways it became the backbone and benchmark for the curries I cook even now.

Why BIR Cooking Fascinated Me

It wasn’t until I moved to Cyprus that I really started cooking in the British Indian Restaurant style.

At the time we had started our own little curry venture, and that’s when I discovered Pat Chapman and his book The Curry Bible. In it he explained the BIR cooking system — the base gravy, the speed of cooking, and the way restaurants could produce so many different curries from the same core ingredients.

Up until then I had only really cooked curries from scratch at home. But once I understood the BIR system, I realised this was exactly what we needed if our little curry venture was going to work.

If you want to serve multiple orders and keep people waiting less than ten minutes for their food, you need a system.

So the next few months became a bit of a blur. I experimented with different base gravies, spice blends and techniques, trying to find a method that worked consistently.

My friends were extremely enthusiastic about the whole process — probably because they were getting free curry.

We even started having Friday night “practice sessions” where everyone would get together, order something from our small menu, and I would cook the dishes as if it were a real curry house.

The goal was to get each dish out in around seven minutes.

As you can imagine, those nights went down a treat.

So What Cooking Has Taught Me About Life

So what has cooking taught me about life?

That’s a good question.

Probably quite a lot, but more than anything I’ve come to believe the saying:

“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”— M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Travelled

And that really does sum things up quite well.

This little blog was never some grand plan. In the beginning it was simply a place where I could organise my recipes and do a bit of writing — something I’ve always enjoyed, even if I didn’t realise it at school.

Over the years I’ve started it, stopped it, restarted it and nearly abandoned it more than once. There were times when the hosting renewal email arrived and I wondered if it was really worth continuing.

But somehow I always came back to it.

I suppose along the way I’ve learned a few things: patience, a bit of frustration, and occasionally the odd moment of despair when something didn’t work the way I hoped it would.

But the important thing is that I never completely gave up.

And maybe that’s the real message in all of this.

Whatever it is you enjoy doing — cooking, writing, building something of your own — just keep going.

Sometimes the best things in life grow slowly, almost without you noticing.

About Where Stevie’s Curry Magic Goes Next

I’m incredibly excited about the next chapter — whether that’s the next stage of my life or simply the next blog post.

There are plenty of plans brewing for Stevie’s Curry Magic. More recipes, more blog posts, maybe even some cooking courses, and perhaps one day a proper cookbook — a real physical one you can hold in your hands. That idea has always been somewhere in the back of my mind, and in many ways it was probably part of the inspiration behind this whole venture.

For now though, I’m just enjoying the journey.

So as I wrap up the last blog post of my fifties, I want to say thank you to everyone who has followed along, tried the recipes, or simply shared the love of curry.

I hope you’ll continue the journey with me.

But for now… it’s time for a few birthday beers.

Good curry takes patience, balance, and time. Come to think of it… so does life.