The heat is on….

The Festivals Company is pleased to announce the three Indian Restaurants through to the final round of Welsh Curry House of the Year 2007 are:

PUNITHAS, 131 Albany Road, Cardiff. CF24 3NS.
Tel: 029 20473029

SOPNA RESTAURANT, Felin Wen, Pontrug, Caernarfon. LL55 2BB.
Tel: 01286 675222

SPICE ROUTE, Red Dragon Centre, Hemingway Road, Cardiff Bay. CF10 4DJ.
Tel: 029 20488820

The three restaurants were selected from a shortlist of ten, chosen by members of the general public as part of a nationwide search to find the best Indian restaurant in Wales. After the public vote closed on February 12, 2007, the judging process was handed over to an independent panel of judges who visited the Top 10 restaurants, located throughout Wales, to sample the food, experience and met the people involved before deciding on the final three.

"The standard of food available in the top ten restaurants was exceptional and made the process of selecting just three to go through to the final round very difficult. I don’t envy the judges on having to decide on the overall winner as they take to the road next week on a mammoth curry challenge", said Berwyn Rowlands, from the Festivals Company who are co-ordinating the competition.

The judges tasked with deciding the winner are: Nitya Pooviah author of A Pinch of Chilli a cookbook of authentic Indian recipes; Graham Titchener from Meat Promotion Wales who promote Welsh lamb and beef and Mike Ahmed owner of the Spice Merchant, Cardiff Bay - the only restaurant in Wales not competing in the competition.

"What I will be looking for is the quality and the variety of ingredients. In some dishes there has to be certain levels of spice, so I’ll be looking out for accurate quantities of these. But Indian food isn’t just about spices: it’s also about the combination of colours and textures. It has to look good," said Mike Ahmed.

The overall winner will be announced during a ceremony held in Y Senedd, (Welsh Assembly Building) Cardiff Bay during Cardiff’s Indian Food Festival on 21 March 2007.

You can follow the competition with Hywel James in Some Like It Hot, three half hour programmes every Tuesday at 7.30pm starting March 13 on ITV 1 Wales.