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clusive x E e f i L y r r Cu Surely the UK’s favourite food warrants a celebration lasting a week – or are you among the small minority who think a day would suffice? That’s the burning question that has been exercising industry experts – as we wave a not-sofond farewell to 2020 and cast our eyes forward to a better, more successful 2021.
CURRY LIFE
SPECIAL REPORT
Strong support for week
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Since being launched in 1998, National Curry Week has become a firm fixture in the calendar - offering strong support for the curry industry with the threepronged aims of showcasing the nation’s favourite cuisine, celebrating and supporting varied components of the curry restaurant industry and raising money for poverty-focused charities. Over the past 21 years, hundreds of restaurants, caterers, pubs and home cooks have come together for one week to
Here’s why the majority of people favour a weeklong celebration – in the shape of the wellestablished National Curry Week, held each Autumn for the past 20 years! celebrate all things curry cuisine and culture - including unique dinners generating funds for causes both at home and abroad – with next year’s event scheduled for 7-12 October 2021. Yet, despite National Curry Week’s continuing significance, a British Curry Day has been mooted for early December by some people from the curry industry - a call which can only serve to divert focus away from the already well-established National Curry Week and which is receiving mixed reactions from the curry industry. This may be a good point to remind ourselves of the aims and values of the founder of National Curry Week two decades ago, curry pioneer Peter Grove – who many restaurateurs and industry leaders feel would be disrespected by any dilution of the week-long celebration.
Grove’s love affair with curry
restaurant sector -followed by National Curry Week in 1998 and Curry Capital of Britain in 1999.
The late Peter Grove, a well-known and established journalist, had a vision to promote awareness and appreciation of the curry industry after falling in love with curry cuisine.
Peter dedicated much of his rich and varied career to the curry industry: he worked with The Chartered Institute for Environmental Health (CIEH) for three years, running their National Curry Chef competition – as well as becoming President of The Federation of Specialist Restaurants and founder
In 1992, he started the Best in Britain Awards (BIBA) for the Asian
of The Curry Tree Charitable Fund and Menu Magazine. Peter edited several travel and food guides, including The Real Curry Restaurant Guide from 1990. He appeared regularly on radio and TV as an expert in ethnic food and drink and co-wrote Curry Culture – a very British love affair with his wife Colleen as well as Flavours of History.
