05.07.02: Curry Competition Reaches Boiling Point
Mr Bayley will launch the grand final of the competition in the canteen at Nestle's Haxby Road headquarters while children from Strensall Primary School will welcome the chefs, judges, guests and children from the York Bangladeshi Community Association with a unique performance of a specially-written song (note for editors - a press release on this will be issued next week).
Mr Bayley said, "I am glad to have been invited to open York's first-ever Curry Chef of the Year Competition. It seems a good way of strengthening the relationship between the council's food and safety unit and the city's thriving Asian restaurant and take-away trade.
"I know the competition is tough because I enjoy a curry myself in York from time to time. I would like to wish the finalists the very best and hope that the competition goes from strength to strength."
The competition - the only one of its kind in the whole of Yorkshire this year - was launched in May. It was open to chefs in all of York's 40-odd Asian restaurants and take-aways and attracted 25 entries.
The process of whittling the numbers down to a shortlist of five for next week's final began last month.
The two-stage judging process included hygiene checks by City of York Council staff and then several tasting sessions conducted by independent judges Stuart Gray-Gowan, an army civil servant, the York Evening Press' Malton-based reporter Simon Horsborough and York College hospitality lecturer tutor David Box.
The five finalists are: Johir Uddihammed of Akash restaurant at North Street; Mohan Miah of the Bengal Brassiere, Nether Poppleton; Saleam Akhtar of the Jinnah Group, Micklegate; Arjad Miah of Jaipur Spice at Haxby Road and Golam Chowdhury, also of Jaipur Spice, Haxby Road.
Each judge has been asked to prepare a main, side and bread or rice dish which will be scored for taste, texture, aroma, culinary skills, originality and presentation. A cup will be presented to the winner along with £100 cheque. Each runner up will also get a cup.
Senior council officers John Cragg, the council's food and safety unit manager, and Colin Rumford, the council's head of trading standards and regulatory services, also popped into last month's preliminary tasting sessions and were impressed.
Mr Rumford said, "We were all impressed at the confidence of the chefs and the skill and thought that had been put into the dishes - and the high standards demonstrated.
Councillor Derek Smallwood, the council's executive member for planning and the environment, said, "We are delighted by the response from the city's Asian restaurants and takeaways.
"The enthusiasm for this event has been tremendous and while choosing the final five has been hard the across the board the overall standards in terms of food safety and food quality have been high and the competition is proving to be a great advert for the trade."
Nestle has provided the venue for the competition final free of charge.
The local competition will feed into the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health's National Curry Chef 2002 competition sponsored by Cobra beer. The winner of next week's heat will go into the regional final at Middlesbrough College, Roman Road, Middlesbrough on August 19 (1pm).
The 2002 National Curry Chef Grand Final will be held in September 2002, at the Harrogate International Centre. The event forms part of the CIEH Annual Environmental Health Conference and Exhibition.
City of York Council is running the event as part of a long-running programme to improve the working relationship between Asian restaurant owners and the authority's environmental health team.
Competition organiser Anita Stone, the council's senior environmental health officer, said, "All the chefs have been really enthusiastic about the competition. Some of them told me that they really wanted to show the council and the judges that there really are some good chefs and businesses in York and that everyone is committed to practising food safety and hygiene."
END Notes for Editors: Comments from the judges on the preliminary stages: the enthusiasm was outstanding and the chefs were very professional the support from work colleagues and bosses was very encouraging to see the chefs demonstrated excellent cooking skills and they used herbs and spices with confidence. the dishes were well thought-out and the variety was excellent, well balanced and original. the aromas, taste and textures were varied and delightful. the chefs demonstrated high standards of hygiene during the various cooking stages. it was great to see that very, very few dishes had added food colours - the chefs know this does not add any taste to the dishes and the colours are not used in the foods they eat at home
