Hosting a dinner party is a real treat. Or it would be if you didn't actually have to do any cooking. Or any washing up. Or any shopping. Oh come on, let's be honest - hosting a dinner party is a nightmare. You run around for days trying to find just the right kind of flat leaf parsley only to discover that half your guests are allergic to the colour green. You spend hours in a hot kitchen with your new coiffure wilting in the steam to create the culinary equivalent of nuclear waste - only with less nutritional value.

There then follows an entire evening in which you apologise non-stop for the state of the food, the cutlery, the tablecloth, your partner's half-mast trousers and the smell emanating from the kids' room.

And then, after waving your inebriated guests off in the direction of the nearest A&E, you have to wash 243 dishes encrusted with what appears to be solidified lava.

A treat? I don't think so. Unless of course you consider days of culinary torture followed by a slow, painful social death, a treat. For the rest of us, who would rather gnaw our own arms off than cook a three-course meal for six of our nearest and dearest, hosting a dinner party is not top of our list of fun things to do.

But it doesn't have to be that way. With just one phone call you can provide a small army of your friends with an Indian banquet fit for a maharaja without lifting a finger, other than to dial the number of Jitender Kumar.

This diminutive, softly-spoken Indian from the far east - Barmby Moor in East Yorkshire to be exact - is the answer to every reluctant dinner party host's prayers. Not only does he plan your dinner party menu for you, he also buys all the ingredients, cooks them up into a traditional feast, serves them to you and your guests, and washes up every pot, pan and pie-dish in the house.

Kumar, as everyone knows him, was born near Delhi but moved to Pocklington in 1994. He recently moved to neighbouring Barmby Moor, where he is still within a short drive of his day job on the non-teaching staff at Pocklington School.

In his spare time he runs Kumar's Traditional Indian Cuisine - a business idea so simple and yet so ingenious you are left wondering why no one has done it before.

"I have always enjoyed cooking, and I like to see people enjoying their food," he said. "I thought that if I offered to cook in people's homes I would get to introduce them to some traditional Indian dishes and meet a few new people along the way.

"When you live in a new country you have to make an effort to get out there and meet people. This is my job and my social life too.

"I think the best meals are made with the best, and the freshest, ingredients - that's my simple philosophy. People are always very surprised how different my food tastes to the Indian food they are used to. But what I do is not restaurant food, it is home cooking."

When Kumar is working in a client's home, he buys all his ingredients fresh in the morning and arrives on the doorstep armed with all his own pots, pans, mixers and choppers at around 1pm. He usually doesn't leave again until at least 11pm, when all the food has been eaten, the plates are drying on the drainer and the cooker is a lot cleaner than when he arrived.

"Every dinner party is a challenge," he explained. "I don't know what sort of kitchen I'm going to be cooking in until I arrive. Some have been so small I couldn't even turn round, but I have to adapt to whatever space is available.

"I spend hours and hours in a client's kitchen. You get to know people in that time - although I don't like chit-chatting too much while I work.

"I am a very friendly person. I don't behave like a new person in this country, and I don't behave like a new person in a client's home. They have to accept me as a member of their household. It's just for the day though, I don't expect to be invited back for Christmas dinner or anything."

While "chit-chatting" with me, Kumar knocked up a delicious meal for six in my less than state-of-the-art kitchen. The menu included chicken kebabs marinated in yoghurt; vegetable samosas with chutney; onion bhajis with raita; chicken curry and lamb beliram with boiled rice, potatoes with cumin, and aubergine bhrata; and carrot cake with a cream cheese topping.

From the way everyone polished off their piled plates, dipping into this dish and adding a dash of that before returning for seconds, I think it is pretty safe to say that the meal itself was a success. And the guests also got the chance to talk to the chef about cooking, Delhi, East Yorkshire and English food.

"I took a basic English cookery course at York College to learn more about your food," said Kumar. "I discovered it is not just about fish and chips and mashed potato.

"Twenty years ago your food was much more basic. It was just roast meat and boiled vegetables with little or no flavour. Things are very different now. You use herbs and spices - they are even available fresh in the supermarkets - and you are not afraid to be adventurous with flavours."

His favourite English chef is Gary Rhodes, because of his emphasis on fresh, seasonal ingredients and picture perfect presentation. However, while Kumar is not averse to cooking English food now, his heart still belongs to the cuisine of his homeland.

"Back home there is no such thing as 'Indian food'," he said. "It is far more complicated than that because India is a very complicated place with many different states. My own cookery is spicy but not too hot - it is about flavour, not heat.

"My aim is to create traditional dishes for people to enjoy in their own home with their friends and family around them. I want to give them a real taste of home - my home."

Kumar charges £20 a head (for a minimum of six people) for a traditional three-course Indian menu, including all the ingredients and, perhaps most importantly, all the washing up afterwards.

For details, phone 07949 574508.

Updated: 08:57 Tuesday, August 20, 2002