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Everybody was at it - celebrating curry that is. National Curry Week
in November, sponsored by Cobra Beer and CurriesOnline, was supported
by more people than ever before underlining the popularity of the
spicy dish. Domino's even weighed in with a Chicken Tikka Pizza.
As restaurants all over Britain were celebrating in their own way,
the event was highlighted on TV during Countdown, by Alan Titchmarsh
and Harry Hill ; in the media by The Sun, Daily Mirror, Daily
Express, Metro and numerous regional titles and on radio stations
throughout Britain.
The organisers welcomed over a quarter of a million people to their
website in the week - more than ever before and fans are already
clambering for details of the 2010 event.
"We are very grateful to everyone involved," said founder
Peter Grove, "especially our sponsors without whom we could not
function and, of course, the restaurateurs who take taime out of the
hectic schedules to become involved."
There is no figure yet for funds raised for the new charitable fund
The Curry Tree "for those who need & have not" but
projections are said to be very exciting.
Restaurants took to the various challenges with their customary
enthusiasm and new records were set for both poppadoms and samosas.
Winners for National Curry Week 2009 :
WORLD POPPADOM TOWER RECORD 2009(this is the original poppadom
record and differs in its rules from the Guinness Book record which
is for the tallest stack)
On November 23rd 2009 during National Curry Week. "A celebration
of one of the world's favourite dishes" Poppadom Express
broke last year's record in a friendly competition between City
councillors and parliamentary candidates Royston Smith and Jeremy
Moulton. They joined forces with Steve Fry and Rashmi Chande from
Southampton and Fareham Chamber of Commerce to take on the challenge
at Poppadom Express. The competition was won on behalf of Poppadom
Express by the City Council team who obliterated the restaurant's
previous record of 230, a national record in 2007, as well as the
current UK record of 282 by piling up a whopping 450 poppadoms into a
static tower. The Trophy will be presented to the City Council in
January 2010. Unity 101 Community Radio broadcasted the event live
and media coverage was provided by the Daily Echo
Bombay Bicycle's World Poppadum Tower Challenge of 144 will be
featured on BBC Radio 4 in January 2010. Though the poppadum Tower
Challenge attempt didn't quite measure up to World Record standards,
it proved quite a feat for the brave head chef of Bombay Bicycle,
Sanjeev Gurung, assisted by Kunal Mehta, Group Head Chef of V8
Gourmet, Europe's biggest Indian restaurant group.
SAMOSA SPEED CHALLENGE 2009
Record Holder - Nirmala Chudasama, contested the Samosa Speed
Challenge at Tiffinbites, St Paul's, where she prepared a whopping 80
samosas in a staggering 10 minutes.
Gulu Anand of Brilliant in Southall was second with 50 samosas.
BEST SIGNATURE DISH (Innovative) 2009
Winner : Kunal Mehta -Vama,
London&ldots;&ldots;&ldots;&ldots;&ldots;&ldots;&ldots;&ldots;LOBSTER KEDGREE
Runner-Up : Ashwani Kumar - Mango Lounge, Windsor&ldots;..Rice
crusted King Prawn-martini
BEST SIGNATURE DISH (Classic) 2009
Winner : Ashwani Kumar - Mango Lounge, Windsor&ldots;&ldots;..Lal
Maas (a fiery hot lamb dish from north of India)
Runner Up : Andy Varma - Vama,
London&ldots;&ldots;&ldots;&ldots;..MURG HANDI LAZEEZ
CUSTOMER RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR 2009
Winner : BRILLIANT RESTAURANT - SOUTHALL
2009 is year for awards to be showered on this famous family run
Southall restaurant. Earlier in the year they won their third British
Curry Award in a row and now it is the turn of their customers and
the National Curry Week organisers to give this latest recognition of
the efforts of Gulu Anand and his team.
If anyone doubts why they are multiple award winners just try
visiting the restaurant to realise why it is so popular that, even in
a time of recession, revenues have gone up by 30%. |
