Curry Life Chef Award 2015
Published on Oct 13, 2015
Chef from Bridgnorth was voted one of the best curry chefs in the UK at the 2015 Curry Chef of the Year Awards at the Lancaster Hotel, London.
Amjad Ali, who is Executive Chef at the Eurasia Tandoori, 21 West Castle Street, Bridgnorth, Shropshire WV16 4AB, was one of 40 chefs to receive official recognition for their contribution to an industry worth more than £4.2billion a year.
Chef Amjad said: “To win this title is the greatest vote of confidence I could wish for, not just for myself but for my team who work so hard to make things happen at the Eurasia Tandoori. “The award will inspire us to keep improving and I’d also like to thank all our customers for their help putting us on the best curry map for many years.
The UK may have a soft spot for old favourites like bangers and mash and fish and chips but the British appetite for curry remains unrivalled.
The Curry Life Chef Awards and Gala Dinner celebrated our ‘official’ national dish ‘Chicken Tikka Masala’ giving visitors the chance to find out more about an industry serving 2.5 million customers a week.
This year awards ceremony recognised the best 40 curry chefs in the UK and special recognition for a restaurant serving exemplary Indian cuisine.
Guest of honour at the Awards Ceremony, Lord Karan Bilimoria, Founder Chairman of Cobra Beer, said: “There is no doubt that curry is the nation’s favourite food and behind the great tastes of curry, are great craftsmen. Those chefs have been awarded by Curry Life, deserves to be congratulated for their hard work and achievements.”
MP Keith Vaz, who is the Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, applauded the curry chefs for producing the best quality curries in Great Britain.
He also paid tribute to the organisers, Curry Life, for their tireless promotion of the curry industry over a decade and setting up the benchmark to promote the best talented chefs. Syed Belal Ahmed, Editor of Curry Life Magazine, said: “It was a fantastic evening and a great way to recognise and celebrate the skills and talents of our Curry Industry. Events like this, illustrates the strength of our love as a nation for Curry.
I would like to congratulate much deserving winners of this year’s Curry Life Chef Awards.”
Other guests at the event included: Sadiq Khan, Labour Party’s London Mayoral Candidate, Paul Scully MP, Rupa Haq MP, Angela Rayner MP, Wes Streeting MP and Paula Sherriff MP.
Guests of the Curry Life Chef Awards were treated to some spectacular entertainment in a glittering awards ceremony, hosted by journalist and broadcaster Nina Hossain.
More then £3,000 pound was raised on the evening for Silver Star Charity, which raises awareness about the dangers of diabetes across UK and Indian Subcontinent.
Shrophire Star Review – 2011
Exotic flavours, exceptional specials and impressive staples have featured for 36 years. The restaurant’s chef is a perennial finalist in the Shropshire Curry Chef of the Year Award. Read more: http://www.shropshirestar.com/lifestyle/food-lifestyle/2011/08/01/meal-review-of-eurasia-tandoori-restaurant-bridgnorth-wv16-4ab/#ixzz1WirggWUg
Shrophire Star Review – 2010
Reviewer’s rating ***** Restaurants come and go but at Bridgnorth the Eurasia seems to have gone on for . . . well, 35 years actually, writes Rex M Key. And its standards have never wavered.
Read more: http://www.shropshirestar.com/lifestyle/2010/07/27/eurasia-bridgnorth-2/#ixzz0w1ix9PrI
Amjad Ali said he was “thrilled” to have been named Best Chef of the Year 2023 at the Curry Life awards earlier this month, but the 50-year-old is no stranger to award success.
Having bagged the chef of the year award twice before in his 22 years as head chef and co-proprietor at the Eurasia Tandoori Restaurant in West Castle Street, he said he is just as “thrilled” to have won it again.
He said: “The restaurant has won many awards before, and I have won chef of the year twice before, but I am thrilled to win again.”
He added that Curry Life judges visited the restaurant “secretly” before naming him the UK’s best chef.
“The come round randomly and they just order something. I have no idea when they came or what they ordered as they were completely anonymous,” he said. “Clearly they liked it though.”
He and his colleagues at Eurasia Tandoori, collected the award at the London Marriott hotel in London’s Grosvenor Square on October 15.
Along with co-proprietor Shamim Haque, Amjad took over the Bridgnorth business, which has been an Asian restaurant since the 1970s, in 2001 and th pair been picking up plaudits ever since.
“We like to put the restaurant and Bridgnorth on the map,” said Amjad. “We have even been to India and cooked balti and chicken tikka masala for a Michelin star chef – we were told it was like ‘taking coals to Newscastle’ but those dishes are British not Indian and we wanted to promote them.”
The chef, who specialises in Bangladeshi and North Indian cooking, said as with most Asian restaurants, the most popular dish at the Bridgnorth restaurant was chicken tikka masala.
“It is the national dish,” he said, adding that the secret to a good curry was the ingredients. “It is the fresh ingredients. We order everything locally and I grind my spices myself. That is the secret to a good curry – the fresh ingredients. And as a chef that is what gives me the most satisfaction – creating a curry from scratch.”
(Extract from Shropshire Star based in Telford.)
Chef Amjad of Eurasia Tandoori Restaurant
Proud Winner of Curry Life Best Chef of the Year 2023
A Journey to Discover The True Taste of Bangladesh 2020 Awards
