A glorious aroma of exotic spices filled the air as we walked into the Aziz Pandesia Restaurant, beside Oxford's Folly Bridge and conveniently close to Christ Church, where the Oxford Literary Festival was taking place. I was there to meet Pat Chapman, the founder of the Curry Club and author of more than 30 books on Indian, Thai, Chinese and Middle Eastern food. Pat and his wife Dominique were all set to demonstrate a few simple Indian dishes, which they proved can be cooked in seven minutes.

For those who are not curryholics (a term coined by Pat when he founded the Curry Club in 1982), Pat is hailed as the ambassador of Indian food. Indian restaurants all over the country have much to thank him for. His first book, The Curry Club Indian Restaurant Cookbook, awoke an awareness of the excellent food served in Indian restaurants; his subsequent books fanned the flames of interest further.

He boasts that he was virtually weaned on spicy food and by the age of ten was learning from his memsahib granny how to cook curries the pukka Indian way. He accepts that some Indian people abhor the word curry, believing it disparages their food, but Pat says curry is a wonderful world, as it is so precise. He sees it as a word which performs a particular function, and is therefore unique in a world of culinary definitions as it refers to a single dish, a whole meal, the entire food of India, the subcontinent and beyond. It also comprehensively refers to a niche market in the retail and restaurant trades - what other culinary word does that?

As Pat and Aziz Ur Rahman, the owner of the Aziz Pandesia, have been firm friends for a couple of decades, the Aziz Pandesia was the obvious place to stage this Literary Festival demonstration. Besides which, Aziz's restaurants feature prominently in Pat's Good Curry Guide. Apparently, Aziz continually advises Pat to open his own restaurant, an idea Pat ignores, preferring to write his books, stage demonstrations such as this and run his cookery courses.

After enjoying a starter of Hari-Ali kebabs (Murgh tika marinated in mint and chilli), beef keems chilli (minced beef balls, stuffed with spices), golden fried prawns (tiger prawns in spiced breadcrumbs) and allo chop (mashed potatoes in breadcrumbs) Pat's audience settled down to watch him cook a prawn jafrezi in seven minutes and a chana chaat salat in three.

First, however, he showed us all how to make our own garam masala, which he proved was infinitely more flavoursome than the mixes we buy in the supermarkets. His secret, when making this spice mix, is simple - first you roast the main spices in a pan until they give off steam. This process is easy, but Pat stressed the importance of not allowing the spices to burn and thereby take on a bitter, carbonised taste. Once dry roasted, they should be transferred to a cool pot, then ground when cold. Grinding them hot in an electric grinder may cause the blades to overheat and burn off the very volatile oils you are trying to capture. Besides, as they cool they become brittle and will grind more easily.

Pat is not ashamed of using an electric grinder for this task. He claimed there was absolutely no difference in the finished product, and reminded us all that the servants who once did these jobs were a thing of the past. Now there were machines available to lighten certain tasks, we should make use of them.

The garam masala mix he made had a glorious mouthwatering depth of flavour which made his audience gasp with delight. Even the staff at Aziz Pandesia were impressed. As Pat said, if you get the basic spice mixes right, the flavour of the dish is assured.

While he began assembling the spices for his next dish, Dominique demonstrated with ease the art of chupattie making, using ata or wholemeal flour, which is mixed with warm water and rolled into discs. It's then cooked on a tava (heavy frying pan with no rim). This delicious unleavened bread, which is always served warm, proved so easy to make that members of the audience declared they would never buy ready-made chupatties again.

Pat and Dominique were taking part in the Oxford Literary Festival to promote three books that have come into print recently: the Good Curry Guide (Cobra, £12.99), which features Aziz's award-winning restaurants; The New Curry Bible (Metro Books, £12.99 p/b), a revised edition of the book he first wrote in 1997; and Indian Food and Cooking (New Holland, £19.99), which is the story of Indian food, featuring a collection of recipes from India which Pat compiled while travelling the length and breadth of India's 26 federal states.

This book explains how the Indian cuisine has evolved during the last nine millennia. It also examines modern Indian food trends. The 200 recipes he has included consist of best-known regional dishes as well as the most modern innovations, which means he includes everything from snacks and street food to main course dishes and desserts. There is also a range of recipes for rice, dals, chutneys and pickles, all of which are written in a manner which makes them easy to prepare and cook, provided you have stocked up on spices.

Pat admits that writing recipes is an arduous task, as like so many skilled cooks, he instinctively knows the amount to add to a particular dish. He's a cook who uses a pinch of this and a spoonful (or two) of the other and as much water as the dish appears to need as it cooks. He sees cooking as an art and accepts that while there are many ways to prepare classic dishes, each region and chef adds their own unique flourish. But that's what's so exciting about his books. Although he gives us the recipe and instructions on how to cook, he then encourages us to make each dish our own.