Curry Awards

The Curry Awards is an award given to curry restaurants in the United Kingdom, which have achieved total excellence in all departments by The Curry Club in association with its publication, The Good Curry Guide.

The Good Curry Guide Awards ceremony was established in May 1991 by Pat Chapman and was the first awards ceremony of any restaurant sector.

Pat Chapman’s first Good Curry Guide was published in 1984. About 600 Indian 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 Curry Guide Restaurants’. The publication attracted considerable media attention. However journalists and food writers from such publications as The Evening Standard, 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, by commencing with a formal presention 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 Indian restaurant 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, and from that no less that 18 ‘Best in Category were to be awarded. It was clear a bigger venue was needed, and one which was divorced from winning restaurants. Chapman had been to an Asian wedding at a Heathrow Hotel where the catering was by Madhu’s. Chapman suggested they 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.

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