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National
Curry Week will run from 22nd to 28th November 2009 throughout
Britain, with the dual aims of promoting the cuisine and culture and
raising money for the less advantaged around the world.
2009 celebrates the 200th
anniversary of the first Indian restaurant(Hindoostanee Coffee House)
opened in Britain by Sake Dean Mahomet (details http://www.menumagazine.co.uk/book/deanmahomed.html)
in London in 1809. From those very early beginnings, curry has grown
to be referred to as 'Britain's national dish' with hundreds of
millions of pounds generated for the economy from retail sales and
the over 9000 restaurants throughout the country.
Such was the success of the 'Can
You Handle the Heat Challenge' in National Curry Week 2008 that not
only will it be repeated this year but kitchens will now be speed
challenged on pakora/samosa creation as well as the production of a
signature dish which will be judged nationally.
CurriesOnline.co.uk (www.curriesonline.co.uk)
- a leading online ordering and reservation service for the UK
Indian Restaurant industry has already signed up to become lead
sponsor for 2009 to lend financial and operational support to the event.
Shamim Hoque, Managing Director
of CurriesOnline said " We are delighted to be in a position
to support National Curry Week and The Curry Tree Charitable Fund. As
an online service provider - we feel that we can bring a lot to the
table to help make this year's event the best ever whilst introducing
our commercial online solution to a wider audience."
Over the past ten years, National
Curry Week has raised funds for charities such as Action Against
Hunger and Oxfam. New for 2009 is the creation of The Curry Tree
Charitable Fund to target the 23 million people eating-out market and
raise as much as possible for deserving causes around the world.
Causes to benefit from the fund will be decided annually by trustees
Peter Grove (Founder), Colleen Grove, Rajesh Suri, Cyrus Todiwala
MBE, Shamim Hoque, Mridula Baljekar and Enam Ali MBE.
Commented founder Peter Grove, "This
year we are trying to pull the national curry family together to
have some fun and help as many disadvantaged as possible. Please visit www.thecurrytree.com and
join the 'Pledge a pound' scheme."
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