Cheltenham Restaurant Wins a Place at the Final of Festival of Curry

Spice Lodge in Cheltenham has been selected as one of the 10 finalists for the Tilda Tiffin Cup Festival of Curry at the House of Commons on Wednesday 9 July.

The Tilda Tiffin competition to find the best South Asian Restaurant in Britain began two years ago. Local MP’s are asked to vote for their favourite South Asian restaurant from within their constituency. These restaurants are then entered into a national competition and ten finalists are chosen to attend the national ‘cook off’ at the House of Commons.

The word Tiffin probably comes from Southern India and is the word that is mostly used to describe a light snack. In Mumbai, the tiffins are prepared for white collar Indian men by their wives after they have left for work, and forwarded to them by Dabbawalas (couriers) who use a suburban train network to get thousands of tiffin-boxes to their destinations. The snacks are packed in stainless steel or tin boxes with carry handles, also sometimes called tiffins or tiffin-boxes. A common approach is to put rice in one box, dal in another and further items in the third or fourth box.

Martin Horwood MP with the proprietor of Spice Lodge, Mohammed Rahman

Spice Lodge, which was nominated by Cheltenham MP Martin Horwood, will attempt to ‘curry favour’ with the judges, including celebrity chef Ainsley Harriott, Editor of Tandoori Magazine, Mr Humayun Hussain, Head Chef at Washington Mayfair Hotel in London, Mr Rajesh Rao, and owner of Madhu's, in Southall Mr Sanjay Anand.

This year the competition will raise funds for Friends in Village Development Bangladesh, whose aim it is to contribute towards educational and socio-economic empowerment of disadvantaged people in rural Bangladesh, and also the breast cancer charity ROKO Cancer.