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After the phenomenal
success of the inaugural event, founder Enam Ali is delighted to
present the second British Curry Awards in association with Lloyds
TSB Cardnet, which takes place on Sunday 17th September 2006 at The
Grosvenor House Hotel, London.
The British Curry Awards
will recognise, congratulate and honour the contribution and
extraordinary achievements of British Asian restaurateurs, who play a
significant role in contributing to the nation's economy and wealth.
The event is an independent awards scheme, which reflects the highly
professional nature of today's British Curry industry, in an effort
to find Britain's Top 10 Regional Curry Restaurants.
More than 1000 VIPs and
celebrity guests will attend this star-studded event consisting of a
host of curry and restaurant aficionados, celebrity chefs, mainstream
and Asian celebrities, public figures, MPs and other high profile
dignitaries. This momentous year is no exception for leading hosts
with main news anchor Alistair Stewart OBE rising to the challenge.
Enam Ali, founder of
Spice Business Magazine, the UK's leading Asian food and catering
magazine, an eminent restaurateur and host of this prestigious gala
event, comments:
"It brings me
great pleasure to present this year's British Curry Awards. Today
'curry' has become a national dish because our pioneers established
restaurants in every corner of the UK and by doing so, contributed so
much to British culture without achieving the personal recognition
they deserved.".
The Awards will be open
to all restaurants serving primarily Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani,
Sri Lankan, Nepalese, or modern fusion cuisine. Last year, more than
2,800 restaurants were nominated for entry by 13,000 members of the
public, making the British Curry Awards the most representative as
well as the largest awards in the industry. This year the awards have
received over 20,000 public nominations.
Nominations for this
year's event were put forward from loyal customers and from these
nominations, an initial shortlist of 100 restaurants were identified
across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. From this list,
30 restaurants will be selected and evaluated by an independent panel
of expert judges selected by Spice Business Magazine, and the Top 10
restaurants will be announced at the awards evening - the event's
most coveted category.
This year's event sees
the introduction of a new awards category, the Supermarket Curry of
the Year, where customers will be invited to nominate their favourite
supermarket curry brands. In a keynote survey, retail sales accounted
for 42% of total sales of Ethnic foods and were valued at £250
million. Also, curry fans spent £480 per minute in supermarkets
and according to the survey a leading supermarket sells approximately
1.1 million packets of chicken tikka masala each year. So with
customer spend on ethnic foods on an increase, it is no surprise as
to why curry is the UK's national dish.
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