National Curry Week Press Room

For further information on any releases for National Curry Week contact Peter Grove Tel : 020 8399 4831 or email groveint@aol.com

10 May 2012

15th National Curry Week to celebrate the “Currification of the World”

The 15th National Curry Week 8-14th October 2012 will not only celebrate the fantastic curry houses all over Britain but also acknowledge the influence curry has had on other ethnic cuisines such as Thai, Chinese, Caribbean, Japanese, South African and more.

A recent survey suggested that a massive 87% of Brits enjoy curry at home or in a restaurant each year and 40% go for their “hit” at least once a week. But it is not just Britain that has the curry habit. In Japan their own special curry is one of the nation’s favourite dishes and Germany even has a museum as an homage to currywurst. 20 years ago the number of curry restaurants in America was a fraction of the number in Britain despite the huge difference in geographical size but now the curry craze has caught on their as well.

S&A Foods with Asda and Patak’s will once again head the sponsorship for the week enabling curry fans to enjoy their favourite food as much at home as they do in curry houses. A team of Curry Ambassadors has been organised around the country to spread the word and “Team Curry”, consisting of some of the best Asian restaurants in the country, has been created to offer the perfect shop window for fans to try curry at its best.

The Curry Capital of Britain element of the event has already started in the 20 competing cities around the country and 2011 title holders Bradford have arranged a special pop-up restaurant day to launch their bid with proceeds going to The Curry Tree Charitable Fund. Last year this competition received well over a quarter of a million votes from around the country.

“We have one or two surprises to come that will be announced in due course,” commented organiser Peter Grove of The Federation of Specialist Restaurants, “and we will ensure this year’s event is the most exciting ever.”

If you are one of Britain’s 87% then National Curry Week is your chance to enjoy – even over indulge in – your favourite dishes and help raise funds for worthy causes. For information : www.nationalcurryweek.co.uk

26 March 2012

Operation of the 10th Curry Capital of Britain starts today with the opening of voting lines to decide the four restaurants to represent each city.

A press release has gone again to local media asking them to canvas their readers to vote for their favourite restaurant and we ask councils to invite visitors to their own website to vote also. Last year we received over 250,000 votes and we are expecting even more this year. All we ask is the name and email address for random checking. Voting direct via vote@fedrest.com or via our website (www.nationalcurryweek.co.uk) will be added to votes forwarded by councils to achieve final scores.

This year we have several innovations and sponsor prizes from a draw for those voting, and details of these will be advised as soon as possible.

Previous holders are :

London West(2001) : Glasgow(2002) : Glasgow (2003) : Bradford (2004) : Birmingham (2005) : Glasgow (2006) Leicester(2007) : Glasgow(2010) : Bradford(2011)

Competing Cities & Dates for 2012:

Cities to be invited to compete for 2012 by the organisers as follows :

London East ; London North ; London South ; London West ; London Central ; Birmingham ; Leicester ; Cardiff ; Bradford ; Manchester ; Sheffield ; Newcastle ; Edinburgh ; Glasgow ; Liverpool ; Leeds ; Wolverhampton ; Nottingham ; Luton ; Northampton. Other cities are welcome to apply.

Important Dates for 2012 :

National Curry Week runs from 8-14 October 2012. The winner of Curry Capital of the Year 2012 will be announced on 29th October.

Final voting for teams 24th August;

Teams announced 5th September

Final voting for city 21st September

Final date for receipt of Council submissions 24th September.

Presentation of the trophy will be in the winning city.

01 November 2011

A Rap, A Takeaway and a great big Bhaji

The Rap -not Katy Perry and Snoop Dog with 'California Girls' but Wolverhampton's Amy Goodall and Wolf Radio's Richard Dodd with their version 'Wolverhampton for Curry Capital' : The Takeaway - the innovative submission by Glasgow Council complete with bag and containers backing the city and its team restaurants : The Great big Bhaji - 102.2kg by students at the Bradford College Food Academy and Bobby from team restaurant Prashad - nearly 18kg more than the previous Guinness World Record for the largest onion bhaji.

These were a few of the many things highlighted by National Curry Week organiser Peter Grove when announcing Bradford as the winner of the title of Curry Capital of Britain for 2011 narrowly beating four times winner and current holder Glasgow into second place. In third place once again was Wolverhampton and gained special comment from Grove.

"In most other years the performance by Kim Gilmour and the Wolverhampton team would have won the title easily. They held a great launch event, voted in a good team and built up a huge body of support from Mayor Bert Turner and local media Express & Star and Wolf and Beacon radio to thousands of Wolverhampton curry lovers". However, the efforts of Glasgow and Bradford were by far the best ever, with enough votes to cause the voting system to crash twice".

Glasgow once again beat fellow Scottish contender Edinburgh to be the Curry Capital of Scotland, a position it has held since the competition began. The judges were again very impressed by the commitment of the council's Agnes Brisbane and her restaurant team of Slumdog, Kama Sutra, Neelim and KoolBa and particularly commended their fundraising contribution to The Curry Tree Charitable Fund making the city the most generous Curry Capital competitor in Britain for a second year. The judges' comment on the Glasgow bid was : "Introduced by Lord Provost Bob Winter, the submission was as good as ever, promoting the city well whilst being innovative and fun".

The Bradford bid led by the council's Patricia Tillotson with a particularly strong restaurant team of Aagrah, Prashad, Kiplings and Shimla Spice win the title they first won in 2004. When the process started in April they decided last year's runner-up slot was not good enough and pulled out all the stops. Shimla Spice produced over 2000 emailed votes to win the title of Customer Restaurant of the Year 2011 and the city scored highly in every sector from "Scores on the Doors", to judges' visits and fund raising for The Curry Tree. The judges decided the Bradford bid showed deep understanding of the curry sector and particularly noted the creation of the International Food Academy and the Food Ministry.

Leicester, winners in 2007, produced a very effective online council submission with good restaurant team support, particularly from Anjuna with its Beach Party held to raise donations for charity and were close up in fourth place beating Birmingham, winners in 2005, once again.

Seventeen cities and boroughs were in the competition this year with the top ten being Bradford (Winner), Glasgow (Runner-up), 3rd Wolverhampton, 4th Leicester, 5th Edinburgh, 6th Newcastle, 7th Birmingham, 8th Manchester, 9th Nottingham, 10th equal Cardiff/Sheffield.

Rajesh Saraf, Director of Kama Sutra Group in Scotland said "The UK Curry Capital of Britain competition is fiercely fought throughout the length and breadth of the country" and Mayor Wolverhampton M.H.Turner commented that the competition "will bring further prosperity and employment for all the cities that take part".

For the organisers, Peter Grove particularly wished to thank the organising officer in each competing council for making the event such a success once again and already other cities are stating their intent to take part. This year one of the most dedicated voting was from South Tyneside Council and they were not even official competitors. When told of the possible added competition for 2012, four time winner Glasgow's Agnes Brisbane said "bring it on".

The trophies for the winning city and team members will be presented by Anjali Pathak of National Curry Week sponsors Patak's at a date to be announced.

07 October 2011

POEMS, POPPADOMS AND PERSPIRATION

The 14th National Curry Week starts on Sunday 9th of October and runs through to Saturday 15th leading to World Hunger Day on Sunday 16th.

With over 70% of the British public enjoying curry each year, the celebration of Britain's "national dish" is something to be enjoyed by almost everyone whether in a restaurant, ordering a takeaway or getting a few friends round to dine at home.

The week offers a whole series of events for fans to enjoy including World Poppadom Tower attempts, The Curry Capital of Britain competition including 17 British cities and even Curry Poem of the year. 3 years ago fans enjoyed a "Can You Handle the Heat" competition but organisers saw the potential dangers and have not repeated it. "We want people to enjoy this fantastic cuisine not end up in hospital, suffering from consuming chillies that are can actually better be used for tear gas," commented Grove.

'Going for an Indian' is almost part of the English language but a recent survey for organisers of Curry Week point out this is no longer quite correct.

"People have known for some time that over 65% of our Indian restaurants are in fact owned or run by Bangladeshis," explained event organiser Peter Grove. "However, our survey shows 30% of the curry loving public actually prefer Bangladeshi cuisine followed by 22% who prefer Punjabi. Goan/South Indian is becoming increasingly popular and takes third place with 14% closely followed by Kashmiri on 12%. Pakistani and Hyderbadi tie on 7% followed by Mughul, Evolved, Parsi and Rajisthani to make up the top ten".

So many public votes came in for The Curry Capital of Britain event that the voting line crashed twice and further signs of the support from the public are the number of times the special curry quiz has been downloaded for use at curry parties at home.

For the first time, curry fans can easily join in the fun with the help of specially designed menus for the week created with the support of partners Asda and Patak's but it is hoped people do not forget the more serious side of the annual event.

"This year we are focusing on raising money for The Pakistan Flood Disaster once again," said Grove, "and hope curry fans will be as generous as ever in donating to' those in need and who have not' (the motto of The Curry Tree charitable fund).

October 2011

SPICY FOOD IS OUR HERITAGE SAYS NATIONALCURRY WEEK ORGANISER

British cuisine has often been described as bland and boring but according to Peter Grove, organiser of 14th National Curry Week, this perception is far from the truth.
"Britain has enjoyed spicy food for over 2000 years, " says Peter, "so it is hardly surprising we are a nation of curry fans now".
Most spices were introduced to Britain during Roman times and then again during the Crusades to join the existing use of herbs. In the time of King John we had powder fort, powder douce and powder blanc, very much along the lines of garam masala and later this changed to 'kitchen pepper(ginger, pepper, cloves, nutmegs and cinnamon)' much like curry powder long before it came to UK in the 1780s.
Even the name 'curry' could well be English as, in Richard II's reign (1377-1399) the first real English cookery book was written. Richard employed 200 cooks and they, plus others including philosophers, produced a work with 196 recipes in 1390 called 'The Forme of Cury' followed by 'Curye on Inglish: English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth-Century'. 'Cury' was the Old English word for cooking derived from the French 'cuire' - to cook, boil, grill - hence cuisine.
A recipe from Edward III's chef Taillevent(1327 - 1377), "Stewed Beef with Macrows" was blind taste-tested by a BBC Radio 4 dicussion panel against a modern restaurant curry dish and it was generally agreed that the medieval dish was the 'authentic' curry.

Stewed Beef with Macrows
1lb (450g) stewing beef - cubed
1.5 pts (570ml) good beef stock
1 carrot, sliced
1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 tsp minced garlic
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
Half tsp dried sage
Half tsp white pepper
2.5 inch cinnamon stick
Half tsp black peppercorns
Half tsp cloves
2 blades mace
Roughly ground in a pestle and mortar, then place in a muslin bag or spice ball
20 ml cider vinegar
2 large slices brown bread broken up
Large pinch saffron, steeped in a little hot water
Salt & pepper to taste
Generous amount chopped parsley to serve

Method :
Simmer meat, onions, herbs, seasoning and all spices except for the saffron in the stock, skimming from time to time. After 1 hour of cooking take quarter pt (150ml) of the stock out of the pot and mix with the vinegar. Add the crumbled bread and allow to soak. When the meat is cooked, add the soaked bread and simmer until gravy is thickened. Add the steeped saffron and cook briefly until colour develops. Adjust seasoning to taste, sprinkle with fresh parsley and serve with macrows (similar to modern macaroni).

National Curry Week will celebrate Britain's favourite cuisine once again but this year all curry lovers are invited to join in by visiting their local curry house as usual or alternatively having a takeaway or even arranging a curry party at home. Partners Patak's, Asda, CurriesOnline and Cobra have all put together packages to make enjoying a curry as easy as possible and all fans need to do is visit www.nationalcurryweek.co.uk.
The event does have its serious side with restaurants and groups of fans running special events and specially designed quizzes to raise money for The Curry Tree Charitable Fund which will once again focus on The Pakistan Flood Appeal.
"This year should be the best ever," commented Grove. "We have received over half a million votes for the 17 cities in the Curry Capital of Britain competition ; seen some amazing contributions to the Curry Poem competition and even received a specially recorded rap to underline Wolverhampton's support of the event - who could ask for more?"

August 2011

MALAYSIAN CURRY RESTAURANTS SIGN UP AND SHOW THE WAY FOR 2012

Fifty Malaysian restaurants have signed up for National Curry Week in cooperation with Malaysian Kitchen to underline that curry is not only Britain's national dish but is hugely popular the world over with all their individual variations.

Malaysian cuisine has many different varieties of curry, the national dish of the country being Beef Rendang which is beef slowly cooked in coconut milk allowing all the flavours and spices to be absorbed. The Malaysia Kitchen campaign is a celebration of Malaysian food.

"This is brilliant," commented National Curry Week organiser, Peter Grove. "The theme for National Curry Week 2012 from 7 - 13th October is going to be "the Currification or the World" to take in the amazine popularity of curry around the world and this is a tremendous start".

Malaysian curries typically use curry powders rich in turmeric, coconut milk, shallots, ginger, belacan (shrimp paste), chillies, and garlic. Tamarind is also often used. Thai and Chinese curries are well known but lesser known but equally as popular are the curries of the West Indies, South and even Japan, not forgetting Germany's famous currywurst.

"National Curry Week is becoming more exciting daily," commented an enthusiastic Grove. "Patak's have now joined Cobra and CurriesOnline as sponsors and votes for Curry Capital of Britain, boosted by the offer of free Cobra and Patak's for a year, are going mad."

5th April 2011

THE PERFECT LAUNCH FOR NATIONAL CURRY WEEK 2011

The launch of National Curry Week 2011 was announced today (5th April) with the exciting news that the event's World Poppadom Tower Challenge Record had not only been broken almost eclipsed.

The 14th running of the event aimed to raise the profile of the cuisine and raise much needed money for the malnourished and disaster stricken of the world, received the perfect launch when Nahim Aslam's Indian Ocean in Ashton Under Lyne achieved a massive 1075 poppadoms in a tower 1.57m high. The record was witnessed by official judges, Tameside Councilor Bill Harrison and local businessman Jon Howarth, Managing Director at City Accident Response, Ashton-under-Lyne. Both were on hand to observe the attempt from start to finish, making sure the guidelines provided by National Curry Week and Guinness World Records were properly followed when counting and then measuring and officially recording the height of the tower.

The record was first achieved in 2004 when Matt Robinson piled 152 poppadoms on top of each other but the Indian Ocean's achievement beating the present record of 450, takes things to a new height!

National Curry Week will take place from 9 - 15 October this year leading up to World Hunger Day and will be supported by a group of partners, the first to sign up being Cobra Beer and takeaway specialist CurriesOnline.

Centrepiece of the event will again be Curry Capital of Britain with nineteen cities invited to compete to try and rest the crown from current title holder Glasgow. The winner of the title will be Curry Capital of Britain during London Olympic year.

"What a way to start this year's event," commented organizer and founder Peter Grove. "I am sure this will be the best National Curry Week yet and hope every curry fan in Britain gets involved."

For the first time the 2011 event will be featuring Dine In as well as Dine out so whether you get your curry from restaurant, takeaway, supermarket or even cook your own, you will be able to join in. For details visit www.nationalcurryweek.co.uk.