Every week, before the Thursday cook begins, someone in our kitchen makes the bases. The green curry paste, the harissa, the miso dressing, the tahini sauce. None of it comes out of a jar.
This is a choice that costs time. It’s worth being honest about why we make it.
What’s actually in a jar
Good shop-bought sauces and pastes are better than they used to be. We’re not making a blanket argument against them — for a weeknight home cook with 40 minutes and three children, a decent jar of curry paste is a completely reasonable ingredient.
But almost all commercial pastes are designed to last 12–18 months on a shelf. That means preservatives, stabilisers, and compromises in the spice balance that help the product stay consistent over time. The aromatics — the fresh ginger, the lemongrass, the galangal, the herbs — are either dried, concentrated, or partially replaced by flavour compounds that approximate the real thing.
This is not a criticism. It’s just what shelf-stable products require.
A fresh green curry paste, made from scratch, contains live aromatics. The lemongrass is fresh and fragrant. The galangal has a sharp, peppery bite that no dried version captures. The fresh coriander stalks and roots contribute something that dried coriander simply doesn’t. The difference in the finished curry is significant.
A fresh paste and a jar paste produce different dishes. Neither is wrong; they’re just not the same thing.
The efficiency of batch cooking
The reason we can make everything from scratch every week without it being impractical is that we’re making large quantities. Blending a full batch of green curry paste for twenty portions takes almost the same time as making a small amount for two. The per-serving labour cost is very low when you’re cooking at scale.
This is one of the genuine advantages of what we do: the effort that would be disproportionate at home is perfectly proportionate in our kitchen.
Where freshness matters most and least
Not every element of a dish benefits equally from being made fresh. A tinned tomato, picked at peak ripeness and processed immediately, is often better than a fresh tomato bought in the wrong season. Dried herbs in a long braise behave differently from fresh ones added at the end — neither is superior; they do different things. Stock from scratch is noticeably better than most commercially available alternatives, but a good shop-bought stock isn’t nothing.
We make the call based on where freshness actually changes the dish. Curry pastes and spice blends: always fresh. Stock: we make our own, but it’s not a religious position. Tinned tomatoes: we use them without apology.
The principle behind all of it is the same: make decisions about ingredients based on what actually improves the food, not based on what sounds more virtuous.