The conversation about whether to use a wholesale Indian curry base or make from scratch almost always starts in the wrong place. Kitchen managers focus on the unit cost of the product — the price per kilogram of a prepared base versus the cost of the raw ingredients. That comparison almost always makes scratch cooking look cheaper.
It isn't. Not when you count everything.
This piece is a real-numbers breakdown of what scratch-made Indian curry bases actually cost a commercial catering operation, and how that compares to sourcing a quality wholesale product. The figures are based on a representative example: a kitchen producing 20kg of finished curry per service, three services per week.
The scratch cooking calculation
Ingredients
A standard base gravy for commercial Indian cooking — onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic, oil, whole spices, ground spice blend — costs roughly £2.80–£3.40 per kilogram of finished base at commercial ingredient prices. For 20kg of base, that's £56–£68 in raw ingredients per service.
That sounds manageable. But it's only one part of the cost.
Labour
This is where the real number lives. A proper Indian base gravy takes 90–120 minutes of active prep from a skilled cook — chopping, sweating down onions slowly, building the spice base carefully. At a mid-level chef hourly rate of £13–£15 per hour, that's £20–£30 in labour per service just for the base.
Over three services a week, that's £60–£90 in skilled labour every week, or £3,000–£4,500 per year — for the base alone, before any finishing work.
And this assumes the labour is actually available. In the current UK kitchen staffing environment, it frequently isn't. When skilled prep time is genuinely unavailable, operations either reduce the volume of Indian food served, cut corners on the base (which shows immediately in quality), or pay overtime rates — which pushes the labour cost significantly higher.
Waste
Scratch cooking involves perishable ingredients. Onions, tomatoes, fresh ginger and garlic all have limited shelf lives in a kitchen environment. A typical catering operation running Indian food from scratch will write off 8–15% of fresh aromatics through spoilage — either from over-ordering to maintain availability, or from service cancellations and volume fluctuations.
On a £60 weekly ingredient cost, that's £5–£9 in waste every week. Over a year, £260–£470 written off.
Total annual cost — scratch cooking
| Cost element | Weekly | Annual | |---|---|---| | Ingredients (3 services) | £168–£204 | £8,750–£10,600 | | Labour — base prep only | £60–£90 | £3,120–£4,680 | | Waste (10% blended) | £17–£20 | £880–£1,040 | | Total | £245–£314 | £12,750–£16,320 |
The wholesale base calculation
A quality wholesale Indian gravy base — BRCGS certified, chef-developed, ambient shelf life — runs at £8–£12 per kilogram at commercial pricing, depending on volume.
To produce 20kg of finished curry at three services per week, a kitchen typically uses 6–8kg of base per service (the base is extended with proteins, water and finishing spices at service). At £10/kg and 7kg per service, that's £70 per service in product cost.
Labour for the finishing — blooming finishing spices, adding protein, adjusting balance — is 20–30 minutes per service from a general kitchen hand. At £11/hour, that's £4–£6 in labour per service.
There is no meaningful waste: ambient products with an 18-month shelf life can be ordered precisely to demand.
Total annual cost — wholesale base
| Cost element | Weekly | Annual | |---|---|---| | Product cost (3 services, 7kg each) | £210 | £10,920 | | Labour — finishing only | £12–£18 | £624–£936 | | Waste | £0–£5 | £0–£260 | | Total | £222–£233 | £11,544–£12,116 |
The real comparison
| | Scratch cooking | Wholesale base | |---|---|---| | Annual cost | £12,750–£16,320 | £11,544–£12,116 | | Saving | — | £1,200–£4,200/year | | Skilled labour required | Yes — 90–120 min/service | No — 20–30 min finishing | | Consistency | Variable (chef-dependent) | Consistent batch to batch | | BRCGS certified | No (in-house prep) | Yes (supplier certified) | | Allergen documentation | Manual, audit risk | Supplier-provided, audited | | Shelf life | 3–5 days fresh | 18 months ambient |
The wholesale option is cheaper in absolute cost terms in most scenarios. Where scratch cooking appears cheaper, it's usually because the labour cost is being carried invisibly — an experienced chef spending prep time on curry bases instead of higher-value work, or a kitchen running on overtime that isn't attributed to any single dish.
What the numbers don't capture
The cost comparison above is conservative. It doesn't account for:
The opportunity cost of skilled labour. When a chef de partie spends 90 minutes making curry bases, they are not doing something else. In a kitchen where that skill is scarce, redirecting it to higher-value tasks — menu development, quality control, training — often creates more value than the scratch cooking saves.
The cost of inconsistency. A curry base that varies between services has a customer retention cost. In corporate catering and university dining, where the same audience eats multiple times per week, inconsistency drives people away from a dish permanently.
The procurement audit risk. In institutional settings, an in-house curry base creates allergen documentation requirements that scratch kitchens consistently struggle to meet. A single failed audit or allergen incident carries costs that dwarf any saving from scratch cooking.
If you'd like to run these numbers against your own kitchen's actual costs, contact us and we'll work through it with you. We can provide sample packs so you can taste the product before committing to any order.