Swedish chef wins UK curry prize

The local, Published: 30 Nov 10 07:57 CET 
http://www.thelocal.se/30508/20101130/


Mohammed Razaul Karim, the head chef and owner of the prize-winningIndian Garden in Stockholm, has gained international recognition for the quality of his curries.


Karim heads to London on Tuesday to receive his Curry Life Award of Excellence Prize, the Dagens Nyheter (DN) daily reported.

Bangladesh-born Karim moved to Sweden from London in the mid-1990s after having learned his trade at his cousin's restaurant and he makes regular visits to the UK to keep abreast of what's new on the curry front, the newspaper reported.

It seems that the feeling is mutual, at least when it concerns Indian Garden's spicy fare, with one customer who was in London at the time, putting in a dinner order at his favourite Stockholm eatery.

”It was a British customer who lives in Stockholm, but was in the UK at the time. He had a friend who he asked to come by and pick up some food for him, when he was on his way to London," Hassan Mian at Indian Garden told The Local on Tuesday.

Indian Garden is located in the Södermalm area of central Stockholm and it is not the first time that its cuisine has been recognised. DN awarded the restaurant a Golden Dragon for the best restaurant in Stockholm, in 2004.

"It was like winning the Nobel Prize. The day after, there was a long queue outside on the street. Since then, it has been fully booked every day," Karim told DN.

The award gave Karim both an appetite and the possibility for expansion and a sister restaurant has been open closer to Medborgarplatsen. Furthermore, there are plans to open a New Indian Garden - a fine dining concept with around 200 places.