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At a small ceremony at Le Raj restaurant in Epsom, Surrey, the award
for Restaurant Hall of Fame 'Personality of the Year' was handed for
the second year running to Enam Ali MBE.
Earlier last month Mr Ali was host to David Cameron MP and 1500
guests and celebrities at The British Curry Awards which he founded
five years ago. The unassuming Mr Ali was obviously overwhelmed to
receive the award once again from editor Peter Grove and to have come
out ahead of so many famous and worthy members of the ethnic catering community.
The Restaurant Hall of Fame (www.resthof.co.uk) was started just over
2 years ago to provide a living history for people in the ethnic
restaurant, food and drink sector and currently carries over 600
profiles receiving over half a million visitors each year.
2009 has been quite a year for Mr Ali starting with his very coveted
MBE and ending with becoming a trustee for The Curry Tree, the new
charitable fund for National Curry Week (22 - 28 November 2009). It
is very appropriate that such recognition should come in the year we
celebrate 200 years of Indian restaurants in Britain.
Runner up to Mr Ali was Satty Singh, well known Scottish personality
followed by Mumtaz Khan of the famous Mumtaz in Bradford. Famous
Indian chef Imtiaz Qureshi came in fourth followed by the first
non-Asian personality Claudio Pulze. Other personalities in the top
ten were Chad Rahman(Chez Mumtaj), Anam Islam(Taste of Raj), David
Tang, Hement Oberoi(Bombay Brasserie) and Vivek Singh(Cinnamon Club). |
