A CURRY competition is hotting up in the city, as chefs go head-to-head to be crowned curry champion.
From the meanest madras to the most delicious dopiaza, chefs from across the city have been busy perfecting their secret recipes to discover who will be crowned this year’s winner.
The finals of the Chester curry championships, which will be held at the MacDonald New Blossoms Hotel in Chester, will include a dozen chefs from restaurants throughout the city cooking their dishes under the watchful eye of the hotel’s head chef, Matthew Brown.
Four judges will be marking the competition this year, including Jamie Stevens from Dee106.3, Jess Harding of the Chester Jets, Mark Yeomans, international Asian cookery judge and Bhupinda Lace-Verdy, 2008 winner of the ‘one pot cook-off’.
The judges will be looking for the use, and combination of spices, to create the flavour, presentation, originality, and overall taste.
From the many hopefuls, the winning chef will be invited to cook their dish at this year’s Chester Food, Drink and Lifestyle Festival, which takes place at Chester Racecourse on April 3-5. The demonstration will take place in ‘Demo Area 1’ on Saturday, April 3, from 10.15am until noon.
Festival goers will have the opportunity to see how the dish is cooked as well as trying it for themselves.
Abdun Noor, head of the Asian Council, says: “The Asian community is very excited to have the opportunity to show off their culinary skills in a competition that is dedicated to creativity of the wonderful curry.
“Chester Food, Drink and Lifestyle Festival aims to promote the very best of local and regional cooking and we believe that the ‘curry’ firmly deserves a place amongst this.
“Now third and fourth generation British cooks, many of our curry dishes have been created in the UK, specifically for British tastes so it is only right that our dishes are included in the best of regional and local cooking.”