The judging for York's first-ever curry chef competition, organised by City of York Council, begins tomorrow (Tuesday, June 18).

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 has attracted 25 entries.

And the task of reducing the entries down to just five for the local grand final in July will begin tomorrow (Tuesday, June 18) with three independent judges visiting restaurants across the city and tasting their fare to come up with the shortlist.

The judges selected by the council are army civil servant Stuart Gray-Gowan, the York Evening Press' Malton-based reporter Simon Horsborough and York College hospitality lecturer David Box.

The judging will be taking place at three city restaurants tomorrow with a further session next Tuesday. Each judge has been asked to prepare a main, side and bread or rice dish. Scores will be given by the judges for taste, texture, aroma, culinary skills, originality and presentation and these will be added to the scores of hygiene inspections already carried out by council staff.

The chefs with the top five aggregate scores will go onto the grand final 'cook-off' at Nestle on Friday, July 12 - with the local winner getting the chance to go into regional and possibly national final.

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. The local competition will feed into the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health's National Curry Chef 2002 competition sponsored by Cobra beer.

Anita Stone, the council's senior environmental health officer, said, "We are delighted with the response and now the judging begins in earnest. The competition is so hot that some of the chefs, who normally don't get to bed until the early hours, are even getting up early to get cooking and compete!"

As well as the quality of the fare, the chefs are also being scored on their understanding of good food hygiene and safety, hazard awareness (i.e. in relation to raw and cooked foods and cooking temperatures), storage and cross contamination, cleaning and structure and personal hygiene.

Over the last few weeks Anita and the council's new food and safety manager John Cragg have been visiting all the entrants in their workplaces to complete the hygiene scores.

Today, the three judges were licking their lips in anticipation. Evening Press reporter Simon Horsborough, 27, said, "I have been a curry addict since my student days. When money was a bit tight we used to whip up a splendid student pea curry. It was cheap but tasty!

"I like all sorts of dishes but I tend to go through phases. Last year it was hot curries - Madras, Vindaloo, you name it. At the moment though my favourite is prawn Dansak."

World curry buff Stuart Gray-Cowan became seriously interested in curry at 17 whilst in the Army and after a posting to the middle east. Later postings to the far east widened his interest and he has spent 30 years perfecting his own curry cooking skills.

He said, "Having visited the Indian sub-continent to experience the 'real-thing' I am now a proficient curry chef and have often provided buffets for large groups of people. I am certainly looking forward to experiencing the best that York can produce - and I am confident it won't disappoint."

York College's David Box is also widely travelled and in 1994 was elected to the Master Chefs of Great Britain. He has spent a career chefing in major establishments in the UK, Europe, New Zealand and Australia - including London's Claridges. He has been a judge for the New Zealand Restaurant of the Year and has also been a senior lecturer in New Zealand and the UK.

The city's restaurant owners are right behind the competition. Iqbal Chowdhury, secretary of York's Bangladeshi Society, said, "This is a perfect opportunity for local businesses to get together to present their skills to the public and show that they are complying with hygiene and safety."

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Notes for Editors: 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. The competition originally started out in Bradford in 1992 as a way of improving relations between Environmental Health Departments and the Asian restaurant proprietors. The background to the York competition is a year-long council project by Anita Stone. Anita visited all the city's curry outlets in a bid to raise awareness of the council's role and improve the service to owners and chefs.