The ardent flavour of can Patak live in ABF's big cooking pot that is corporate

I have been a devotee of Patak's, the Lancashire-based Indian sauce-andpickle conglomerate which was obtained by Associated British Foods for an undisclosed price thought to be someplace north of [pounds sterling] 100 million. Kirit's father Laxmishankar Pathak, who arrived from Kenya with [pounds sterling] 5 and started making samosas and sweets in a cellar in Kentish Town in 1957, was a tough taskmaster using a custom of getting into trouble. Meanwhile.Meanwhile Kirit fought -- and is believed to get settled for [pounds sterling]9 million -- a five-year legal fight together with his two sisters over their claim to shares in the curry company. Despite these ructions, the brand became a favourite with British supermarket shoppers. Stacked from the likes of Uncle Ben and Loyd Grossman alongside more glossy concoctions, the sauces of Patak speak of authenticity even if they are occasionally distantly related to what is in fact eaten in India -- and even when the temptation to blend in additional ingredients can occasionally result in catastrophe. I tried to entertain Watcher readers by road-testing a weird selection of 'cook-in sauces', among them Patak's Goan Pineapple, which I turned to mud that was tasteless by adding uncalled for fried onions. 'This one was a wonderful shade of yellow in the jar, ' I wrote. 'I was tempted to paint it on the kitchen, and I might have done.' Patak's will now become element of the vast ABF brand portfolio, from Kingsmill to Twinings, and will form a part of a section, chaired by Kirit, which contains 'panoriental' Blue Dragon products and other 'world food' lines. It'll be a pity if this mix of big-corporate ingredients creates the type of wreck that is vapid that I uncovered within my cooking pot; despite the change of ownership, the Pathak family enterprise should fight to retain its distinctive, fervent flavour.