|
Back in the early 1990s Indian restaurant owners had to look to just
two possibilities to gain a national award recognising their
restaurant. The first was Pat Chapman's Curry Club Awards which
became the Cobra Good Curry Guide Awards, closely followed by Peter
& Colleen Grove's Best in Britain Awards (BIBA) which ran for 15
years before being dropped as having achieved its original objectives.
Since then Enam Ali's British Curry Awards held on 3rd November has
taken over the mantle of the main awards giver, claiming 40,000 votes
covering 2700 restaurants for 2009. Now in its 5th year it awards 9
regional awards and a Newcomer of the Year and the ceremony was
attended by upwards of 1500.
Unfortunately the industry does not seem content to leave matters at
this with the creation of the Welsh Curry House of the Year run by
The Festival Company of Cardiff, The Scottish Curry Awards run by
Oceanic Consulting of Glasgow, and the new Midlands Curry Awards from
Mishbaur Rahman held on 1st November, British National Curry Awards
from Adnan Malick in London held at the end of October, The World
Food Awards held for the first time on 31st October and even The
Tiffin Cup organised at The House of Commons by Keith Vaz MP.
Now we even have a competition by Gordon Ramsay's "F" Word
which resulted in Curry Corner, opened in 1977 in Cheltenham, being
chosen to appear on the show to face award-winner Lasan of
Birmingham, following a public vote of over 10,000 restaurant goers
around the country.
This plethora of awards systems all claim to promote the good name of
the industry when, in fact, all they do is muddy the waters and
lessen the value of any awards achieved. The initial reason for
Indian restaurant awards was to improve the standing of Indian
restaurants in the general restaurant sector in Britain and with 5
Michelin starred members of the sector that has now been achieved.
Hard working restaurateurs still deserve recognition and all hope to
achieve award status but when awards are given based on questionable
judgement or systems that seem not to even exist or are hard to
fathom, then it belittles their efforts and misleads the public.
|
