The Curry Awards are the highest honours awarded to British curry restaurants.
The Curry Awards ceremony was established in May 1991 by Pat Chapman and was the first awards ceremony of any restaurant sector.
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Pat Chapman’s first Good Curry Guide[1] was published in 1984. About 600 curry restaurants were selected for entry (out of the 4,000 that existed then) and it carried little critical information. The next edition (1987) addressed this by having critical entries from correspondents. No one restaurant was rated higher than any other. In other words neither of these editions named the ‘Best in Class’; Chapman considered that since only the top percentage achieved entry, all entries were ‘Good Restaurants’. The publication attracted considerable media attention. However journalists and food writers from such publications as The Evening Standard[2], The Daily Telegraph, The Times, and BBC Good Food Magazine pressured Chapman to name the best.
Chapman asked his correspondents which restaurants could qualify into a TOP 30 category (which became TOP 100 in 1995), and which could be best regionally and best in UK. The results were duly published in the 1991 Guide and to launch it Chapman decided to hold an Awards Ceremony for the winners. Unlike today, it was a time when there were few such ceremonies. Chapman modelled it on the Academy Award Oscars ceremony, by commencing with a formal presentation of a certificate to each winner in turn before a group of their peers and media, and following with a luncheon to emphasise the event’s social side. On that first ceremony, there were eight winners, including Chutney Mary London, SW10 as Best in UK, where the event was held. Media and public response to this was enormous. So by the time the next GCG was due for publication, the TOP 30 was increased to the new TOP 100 category[3], and from that no less than 18 ‘Best in Category were to be awarded.
It was clear a bigger venue was needed, and one that was not a winning restaurant. Chapman had been a guest at several Indian Weddings at Heathrow Hotels where the catering was by Madhu’s [4]. Chapman knew the owner, Sanjay Anand and suggested his firm did his catering and the Park Lane Hotel was chosen with a seating capacity of 330 seats. It was the first time Madhu’s had catered for any event other than Asian weddings. Chapman organised the entire event. Of the 300 seats, 80 were taken by media.
In the United Kingdom, the term 'Indian restaurant' is commonly used to describe venues that dispense ‘Indian cuisine’. This itself is the blanket term used by many to cover the cuisine of India as well as its subcontinent neighbours : Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. This is also referred to as ‘Asian’ cuisine, which is more accurately defined as South Asian cuisine. The term British Asian or simply Asian, describes British citizens of South Asian descent. In the United States and Australia ‘Asian cuisine’ usually refers to ‘East Asian’ with its culinary origins in Imperial Chinese cuisine and now encompassing modern Japanese, and Korean and ‘Southeast Asian’ cuisine which includes that of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Viet Nam, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines plus ‘South Asian’ as well.
Between 18 and 20 Curry Awards are given before an audience of restaurant personnel and their guests, sponsors, media, press and others, totalling some 800. The luncheon is a major feature of the event. Catering for any event attended by others in the catering trade is a challenge; Chapman's Curry Awards the more so. Being an Indian Restaurant event, the restaurateurs are from all countries of the subcontinent so it is no mean task for the caterer to satisfy 800 of his international peers, and one few caterers would attempt. As detailed above, Madhu's of Southall [5] have been the event's catererer since 1996. The event is widely reported in the UK and in the subcontinent, and it is televised by Sony Entertainment Television Asia [6] and is screened and repeated in Australia, Canada, Europe, Pakistan, India, Mauritius, the Middle East, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States to millions of viewers.
Of the 9,000 Indian restaurants in Britain, each of which are scrupulously examined, only seventy restaurants become shortlisted with four allocated to each of the eighteen Award categories. Of these, only eighteen win the Awards. That is one-in-500 or 0.2% (zero-point two) percentage of the total.
The Good Curry Awards ceremony has been held each time a Good Curry Guide is published as follows:
| Year | Venue | Caterer | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Chutney Mary | Chutney Mary | - | |
| 1995 | Park Lane Hotel, Piccadilly | Madhu's Southall [7] | televised by BBC Network East | |
| 1998 | Nehru Centre, W1 | Clay Oven, Wembley | - | |
| 1999 | Café Royal, Regent St, W1 | Madhu's Southall | televised by LWT News for ITN | |
| 2001 | Hilton Park Lane,W1 | Madhu's Southall | - | |
| 2004[8] | Hilton Park Lane,W1 | Madhu's Southall | televised by Sony TV Asia | |
| 2007[9] | Hilton Park Lane, W1 | Madhu's Southall | televised by Sony TV Asia | |
| 2011/12 | tba | - | - |
Regional Awards
Cuisine Awards
Other Awards
Special Awards
The Ultimate Award
The most cherished Award is the Best in the UK. Only six restaurants have achieved it. All six are still trading at their consistent standard of excellence.