The nation’s favourite Asian and Oriental chefs, as determined by popular public vote, have been announced by the Asian Catering Federation [ACF]. The top thirty were invited to a special presentation ceremony being held in the Terrace Pavilion of the House of Commons on Monday 15th May 2017. The event was also used to launch the Asian Curry Awards 2017, organised by the ACF being presented on at a glittering ceremony on Sunday 12th November, where the top chefs and restaurants will be revealed. The top thirty chefs have been named as: Luthfur Ahmed, Bengal Brasserie, Belfast;   Rafique Ali, Bokhara Bangor, Belfast; Harneet Baweja,  Gunpowder, London; Vineet Bhatia, Vineet Bhatia,…

The curry house has been part of the fabric of British society for quite some time now, so much so that you would be hard pressed to find a high street in the UK without an Indian, Bangladeshi, Thai or other curry-loving type of cuisine. However this might not be the case for much longer, with curry houses currently closing down at a rate of two a week and industry experts suggesting that up to a third of Britain’s 12,000 curry houses are at risk of closure. There are a number of reasons behind this trend, the competition is extremely high and tight budgets continue to make people think twice before eating out, however the number…

At last an awards event where there are some recognised judges. I realise awards events need to make money to fund themselves but many simply seem to be an exercise in self-promotion, with no real competition involved. It’s interesting to see that these organisations are at least trying to address this by appointing a panel that can legitimately be described as experts. Hopefully this will lead to some really good restaurants winning rather than just the ones that bought the most tickets for the awards evening. Here’s an extract from their press release to let you know who’s involved: “Leading Asian chefs will compete in a dramatic cook off to…

OK restaurant owners (and takeaways / hotels / bars etc.) I recently read a guide to website design for the hospitality industry and to be honest it was absolute rubbish and didn’t list any really important elements needed on a restaurant website. So as a regular user and often frustrated customer (and because it’s Friday) here’s a totally unscientific list of my pet hates about the websites you hope will attract my custom: Doesn’t work on a mobile phone – yes even though more searches and bookings are now done on smartphones and tablets than on desktop machines, hundreds of websites still aren’t designed for mobile use. My eyes aren’t great, don’t…