Brilliant!
Thanks for setting this up

It's no misprint. That is what he said.

There seems to be at least two ideas about this
One is that you need a really strong flavoured base which requires little spicing and the other is the "mildly spiced" base.
I think it's probably down to the chef
He knows what base he has got and what it needs to be turned into the curries we love
After all they all seem to get the same sort of result don't they?
I don't now believe that "Recipes vary only slightly from one chef to chef and restaurant to restaurant" as Mr Chapman states
I read, in this forum, that someone else had managed to see restaurant curries prepared.
The chef didn't seem to do anything that we aren't doing.
It MUST be tecnique
I made some curries the other day and got a restaurant result
I tried it two weeks later and the result was back to "home made"
It was good but not correct
It has to be in the timing

This recipe is lifted from Pat Chapman
1 1/2 lbs of cookd potatoes (that sounds a lot!!)
4 tablespoons of veg oil
8 tablespoon curry gravy
2 tomatoes chopped
1 teaspoon salt

Spices:-
2 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon mango powder (I doubt that one)

Heat the oil and stir fry the spices for 30 seconds
Add a little water and evaporate it off stirring all the time (2 minutes)
Add the curry gravy and tomatoes and salt and bring to boil
Add the poatoes and simmer till hot

If you can, use the oil from the top of your curry gravy
A teaspoon of garlic/ginger puree added with the curry gravy would improve it too!
Don't worry if you haven't got mango powder it just gives a slightly sour taste to the finished dish.
I don't reckon many restaurants use that
To precook potatoes you can simply boil in water for 15 minutes with a desertspoon of turmeric and a teaspoon of salt or
Heat up 4 tablespoon of oil
Add 2 desertspoon of garlic ginger puree and fry til brown
Add the peeled potatoes and a tablespoon of madras curry powder
Stir to coat the spices over the poatoes
Add enough cold water to 3/4 cover the potatoes and bring to the boil
Simmer with the lid on for 15 minutes checking that it doesn't dry out
When you add the cooked potatoes to the finished curry make sure you get some of the sauce it was cooked in.
It's really tasty!!

I have seen the chefs with the curry gravy and I really believe the preparation to be simple.
I can usually tell a difference between home made and bought curry.
I think that is down to the freshness of the curry base and the quantity it is made in.
The pans they use contain probably six times more than I would cook.
They must use 40 or 50 onions at one go!
I saw one chef adding the curry powder to the boiled onion mix.
He was using a massive spoon.
He must have put in about four small packs worth (3 oz packs) into it.
I reckon if you scaled up the amounts we have talked about to make curry gravy, and cooked it for a total of six or seven hours (because they keep it warmed up in the evening)
you would get it exact.
I have noticed also that when one of my kids buys a curry on a Sunday it has a different "fresh" flavour.
That flavour is the same as I can make.
I have been told that the gravy is made up on Sundays and Thurdays in two of the restaurants near me.
I tried using three day old gravy and it is different.
It has a "dirtier more spicy" taste.
In my opinion it improves it greatly.
When you cook a curry next do extra portions and freeze some.
It will taste better to you when you thaw it out.
Cooking with spices messes up your sensitivity of taste.