Search for the best curry house

Indian, Bangladeshi, Balti and similar restaurants and takeaways are invited to enter the 2011 ‘Shropshire Council Curry Chef of the Year’ competition after the great success of the first contest in 2010.

The winner of the award will be the restaurant or takeaway in the Shropshire Council area with the chef producing the best curry, side dish and rice accompaniment, as well as achieving high standards of food hygiene in their premises.

Abdul Husen won the accolade for the Café Saffron Indian restaurant in Shrewsbury last year. Since winning the competition he has gone on to be named Curry Chef of the Year by Curry Life Magazine, and appeared on ‘John Bishop’s Britain’ on BBC1.

All eligible restaurants or takeaways can express an interest in entering by submitting an application form. The entries will be initially assessed by the council’s food safety team, making reference to the most recent food hygiene inspection. The successful applicants will be contacted and arrangements made to visit the premises to ensure that good food safety practices are being met and to taste the chef’s chosen dishes.

The best chefs will then be invited to enter a ‘cook-off’ in front of a panel of judges at Radbrook Catering College in Shrewsbury on Monday 4 April, where they will have one hour to cook and display their chosen menu.

The competing curry dishes will be tasted by the judges and the best chef will be awarded a trophy as well as the title of ‘Shropshire Council Curry Chef of the
Year 2011’.

Councillor Cecilia Motley, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member with responsibility for environmental health, said:

“We are running this competition to highlight and promote the many excellent curry houses that we have across the county.

We are very keen to encourage even more entries this year to build on the success of the first-ever competition in 2010 when we received 16 entries and awarded the title to an extremely
worthy winner.

The competition offers a great opportunity to help local businesses and also aims to highlight the important work carried out by our environmental health officers to ensure that our restaurants and takeaways are safe, hygienic places. A key part of the competition is to ensure that safe food hygiene practices and good management are being undertaken in the kitchen to ensure safe food is being produced in the best premises.”

Abdul Husen has acknowledged that winning the competition was a fantastic platform for further success. He said:

“Since deciding to enter this competition and then going on to win the title last March, Café Saffron has undoubtedly had its best year of trading since opening ten years ago. We now enjoy both national and international recognition and it has encouraged us to continually strive for the highest standards.”

Invitations to enter the competition have been sent to all the curry restaurants and takeaways known to Shropshire Council’s food safety team.

Any who have not received an invite are welcome to enter and can request an application form by calling 01939 237495 or 01939 237496.

It is estimated that there are around 70 businesses in the Shropshire Council area eligible to enter. The closing date for entries is Friday 4 February 2011.