Curry Life Awards and Gala Dinner celebrate top chefs and restaurateurs at glittering event

The Curry Life Media Group hosted its 13th annual Curry Life Awards at a glittering ceremony recognising the best chefs and restaurateurs in the UK and Europe.

This year's Curry Life Awards and Gala Dinner event was held on Sunday at The Great Room of the Grosvenor House Hotel in central London, with 40 awards handed out across various categories.

Abdul Ghani (Sr.) of Shezan Indian Restaurant in Edinburgh, Scotland, received the Lifetime Achievement Award for his outstanding contribution to the restaurant sector.

Ghani has been involved in the restaurant industry for almost fifty years.

A Special Recognition Award was given posthumously to Alauddin Ahmed, founder of Kismet Restaurant in Stoke on Trent.

The late British-Bangladeshi businessman opened Staffordshire's first Indian restaurant in 1962 and sadly passed away last year. His son, Salauddin, continues to run the 60-year-old restaurant.

Another special award went to the InterContinental Dhaka, an IHG hotel, which won the Curry Life International Hospitality Award.

General Manager Ashwani Nair and Marketing Director Shahidus Sadeque accepted the award on behalf of the hotel.

Curry Life has established itself as a trusted and reliable voice and partner of the British curry industry through regular publications covering its achievements and challenges facing the curry industry.

It also organises the British Curry Festival, many of which have been hosted in various countries across the last two decades.

The Curry Life Awards has consistently ranked as one of the best annual events in the UK's culinary calendar and several hundred restaurateurs, politicians, chefs, entrepreneurs and journalists attended the prestigious awards ceremony.

Guests at the event included Minister of State at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Paul Scully MP, and Lord Karan Bilimoria, founder of Cobra Beer and ex-chairman of the Confederation of British Industries (CBI).

Labour Party MP Rushanara Ali, the first person of Bangladeshi origin to have been elected to the House of Commons, and Mark Finch, Director, UK Account Management Director of the online ordering company Just Eat UK were also at the event.

Hamza Choudhury, a budding British footballer of Bangladeshi origin, and a member of Leicester City's triumphant FA Cup 2021 team was in attendance too and the Awards were presented by Adam Boulton, prominent Sky News broadcaster, journalist and author.

This year's Curry Life Awards were broadcast live on social media as in previous years.

Curry Life editor Syed Belal Ahmed delivered the welcome address, and outlined how, following Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic, the curry industry is now facing the threat of continued price inflation, the high costs of living and rising energy prices.

"Due to one crisis after another, the curry industry is facing the worst challenge in its history," Belal said. "Curry houses have undergone various transformations to keep pace with the times."

Ahmed expressed hope that the curry industry will move forward by facing all the challenges in the future, as it has done in the past.

Lord Karan Bilimoria said that the government has provided some significant assistance to help people and businesses in difficult times, but signalled that the crisis is not over yet, and that the government should continue to support the huge curry industry sector.

"Currently the curry industry contributes billions of pounds annually to the British economy," he said. "This sector, including delivery services, employs hundreds of thousands of people, so it needs to be strengthened."