The Pillars at UWL is chosen venue for the Asian and Oriental Chef awards
Yawar Khan,
Chairman, Asian Catering Federation
|
Ealing's The Pillars Restaurant at the University of West London (UWL) will be the venue for a special ''cook-off'' final.
The Pillars is the training restaurant for chefs and hospitality students at UWL and pre-Covid was open to the public providing a gourmet dining experience.
The Asian and Oriental Chef Awards are open to professional chefs working in Bangladeshi, Burmese, Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, Middle Eastern, Pakistani, Singaporean, Sri Lankan, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese restaurants and takeaways.
The pandemic has had a major effect on many restaurants and Yawar Khan, Chairman of the Asian Catering Federation (ACF) has highlighted how the Asian community has been particularly badly hit. However, Mr Khan has pointed to many initiatives adopted by struggling restaurants in order to survive the pandemic. These include Michelin-starred restaurants offering takeaways for the first time, cook at home meal-kits, menu development with unique fusions, Zoom-based cookery classes, extensive refurbishments, staff training, online ordering platforms, learning social media marketing skills and more.
He says, ''Every cloud has a silver lining and government support in the form of VAT cuts, furlough payments, rate relief and, bounce back loads, has been a welcome lifeline. Fortunately many ACF members have been able to rely on a growth in takeaway orders during lockdown.”
Chefs, who have spent their increased free time experimenting with different ingredients and crafting new dishes, are being urged to showcase their creations at the Asian & Oriental Chef Awards in June.
Twelve finalists will be invited to a cook-off competition taking place in The Pillars Restaurant at the University of West London in Ealing on Monday 21 June.
The winners will then be revealed at a special presentation dinner at the House of Lords on Monday 5 July, hosted by Lord Sheikh.
The event will also launch the ACF's other annual awards: the 5th Asian Restaurant Awards, being held in Manchester in July and Edinburgh at the Sheraton Grand on Monday 20 September, plus the 11th Asian Curry Awards taking place at the Grosvenor House on Sunday 21 November.
To enter, chefs need to submit recipe details and photos of an original two course meal by 7th June to infos@acfederation.org.
Annemarie Flanagan
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23rd May 2021
