Chef Anand George

Details will be released shortly, but the first part of this innovation is a secret menu trial involving a group of people selected at random from our growing Twitter followers.

Through an intensive Twitter competition run over the weekend, we are pleased to have our ‘magnificent seven’ tasters  drawn from over 50 followers who had kindly entered.

We are so sorry that we could not choose more, if you missed out, but if this pilot proves successfuly, which we are sure it will, then there will be more opportunities in future.

The seven have been notified and are due to attend the restaurant to meet Chef Anand George and to trial new dishes which will appear on our menu in June.

We will be announcing the identity of our new menu very soon.

Raffle prizes include an invaluable culinary Masterclass experience for two people with Chef Anand George.  The four course dinner will also include a glass of wine or beer, and costs £40 per person.

To book your place, please contact Sue O’Brien at Llamau on 029 20 239 585 or email sueobrien@llamau.org.uk  or visit the website.

Purple Poppadom is Welsh Curry House of the Year 2012.

The Festivals Company is proud to announce that the Purple Poppadom from Cardiff has been crowned Welsh Curry House of the Year 2012. The announcement was made by Rt Hon Carwyn Jones AM, First Minister of Wales at a glittering Awards Gala Dinner at The Red Dragon Centre, Cardiff Bay on Monday 23 April 2012.

“We knew the National Award would eventually go to South Wales but we didn’t think it would take six years. The Purple Poppadom is a restaurant that represents a vision of the future but is a reality we can enjoy today. Imagination, flair and confident execution were all in evidence at this fine Indian restaurant which we believe can happily compete on the world stage. This is a restaurant that Cardiff and Wales can be proud of. The Purple Poppadom is a new restaurant that lives up to the hype. The attention to detail is quite spectacular and at the heart of the dining experience is one of the best chefs in the world, Anand George,” said Niaz Taj, the Jury Chair.

“The competition is committed to celebrating the fine work of the 280 Indian restaurants we have in Wales. We are also committed to encourage the sector to use more locally sourced Welsh ingredients like Welsh Lamb. The response to the Welsh Lamb Curry dish which was offered in the top 30 restaurants confirmed a demand by the public for food using locally sourced ingredients. We would like to see such ingredients become a permanent part of menus in restaurants all over Wales,” said Berwyn Rowlands from the Festivals Company.

The judges who were tasked with choosing the National Winner were:

Niaz Taj, Jury Chair and Manager of the Spice Route.                                                                         Shuel Ahmed, winner of the competition in 2008 and 2011 from the Sheesh Mahal in Llanelli. Bonny Young from London returns as a judge having travelled extensively in India.              Sirajul Islam returns as a judge having spent 40 years in the Indian Restaurant sector.

A total of five awards were presented during the evening and the winners were:

Purple Poppadom, 185 Cowbridge Road East, Cardiff. CF11 9AJ (NATIONAL  WINNER) The Suhail, 12 Bastion Road, Prestatyn. LL19 7ES (NORTH WALES WINNER)                 Bengal Spices, Ashfield House, Llanymynech. SY22 6ER (MID WALES WINNER)       Purple Poppadom, 185 Cowbridge Road East, Cardiff. CF11 9AJ (SOUTH WALES WINNER)                                                                                                                                                        Bombay Blue, 27a Cardiff Road, Caerphilly. CF15 7SS (BEST DESIGN)

The Welsh Curry House of the Year competition will return in 2013!

Ends

Note to editors:

Previous winners of the competition:

2011: Sheesh Mahal, 53 Stepney Street, Llanelli. SA15 3YA

2010: Spice Cottage, East Street, Rhayader. LD6 5DN

2009: Kareems – The Restaurant, 72 Queen Street, Rhyl. LL18 1SB
2008: Sheesh Mahal, 53 Stepney Street, Llanelli. SA15 3YA

2007: Sopna, Felin Wen, Pontrug, Caernarfon.

Over 12,000 votes were cast by the people of Wales for their favourite restaurants, and a short list of 30 restaurants judged. We were delighted to have won first the regional award and then the top prize for Wales at a glittering ceremony at the Red Dragon Centre on Monday 23rd April.

We would like to thank the organisers, the judges and of course the people of Wales and our wonderful customers in particular for their support.  This is the first award for Purple Poppadom and we will never forget it.

Anand George on his reaction to the Award

“I would like to say that this award is very special to us.  Not least because it is the first major award for Purple Poppadom has won and we will always cherish it.

I must also say that I am honoured to have received this award from First Minister Carwyn Jones.  I would also like to pay tribute to the organisers and judges of the Welsh curry awards and all those involved in making this special event possible. You have rightly made this award the toughest challenge of all which makes winning even more special to us.

Above all, you are continuing a great job in raising awareness of good food, and the excitement you create is helping us and helping the economy.

When we created Purple Poppadom we did not know if people would follow us to our new place in Canton and go with our new concept of Nouvelle Indian Cuisine. But people have supported us and we are very busy which is great.

This is an award for the entire PP team. They were there from 2007 and they joined me for the new project of PP and their faith in coming with me I will never forget.”

Raman Bijalwan, General Manager and Director of Purple Poppadom said: “It is important for us to unite great cuisine with the highest standards of service and we believe this combination helps to give Purple Poppadom its character and keeps people coming back to experience the restaurant.

This wonderful award will happily create even more interest in PP on a national basis, and we look forward to introducing more people to experience Purple Poppadom for themselves.”

Anand George added: “At Purple Poppadom we have total freedom to express ourselves in our cuisine, to innovate in everything we do.  But without the support of the people of Cardiff and Wales we would be nowhere, and I thank you all.

Finally I have always said I am on a 5,000 mile culinary journey, from Kerala to Mumbai, From London to Cardiff.  But what I will say is the next stage of my journey  be the most exciting yet as we strive to innovate, to push forward the boundaries of our cuisine.

I cannot thank you enough for awarding Purple Poppadom the title ‘Welsh Curry House of the Year 2012!’  Thank you.”

AG

I visited this restaurant on a recommendation from a colleague. I had not booked and I just turned up at the door – the restaurant was very busy for a Tuesday night yet we were seated immediately and asked for our drinks order within 5 minutes.

The waiters were very attentive and friendly and the menu was refined. Our food arrived promptly and cannot be faulted. Although the bill was more expensive than the usual Indian restaurant, this was very much reflected in the quality of the food. It was absolutely delicious.

I encountered none of the difficulties that I have read about below – it would seem that any issues with service have been rectified if my experience was anything to go by.

All in all 5* service and food and well worth a visit.

Chef Anand George

We are looking for someone to become a Sous Chef for the day working alongside Chef Anand George as he demonstrates his art at a Welsh food festival this year.

No cheffing experience is required whatsover, we are simply looking for someone with a love of Chef Anand’s style of cuisine, who would like to appear alongside Chef and assist him in front of a food audience.

To enter, Chef would like you to submit a  dish you would like to cook for Anand George in Purple Poppadom’s kitchen.

This does not have to be your own recipe, it can be anybody’s, but it must be one you are able to cook yourself.  To enter take a photo of your creation and email it to info@purplepoppadom.com with ‘sous chef competition’ as the subject.

We will invite short-listed entrants to cook their dish at Purple Poppadom for Chef.

Please remember to register email address in ‘Join the Purple Poppadom mailing list’ at the foot of our Home page.

Please note this competition carries no monetary value and the prize is not transferable, the judges decsion is final. Usual Purple Poppadom competition rules apply.

Deadline for entries is May 17th.  Good luck!

We will now go through to the National final competing against regional winners of Mid and North Wales for the overall national title.  The winner will be announced in April.

According to the organisers 12,893 votes were received from members of the public in voting for their favourite restaurant.

This resulted in a short list of 30 being drawn up for the next round of the competition which involved restaurants offering a Welsh lamb dish.  We are delighted to say that Purple Poppadom won the South Wales region and now we go forward to the final.

The Purple Poppadom was described by the regional judges as “A very high quality dining experience, fine dining that one would ordinarily expect in a world capital. A pleasure and the best Indian Restaurant I’ve eaten in Europe.”

Chef Anand George said:   “Everyone at Purple Poppadom is thrilled to have been named the regional winner for South Wales in these prestigious awards.
We would like to thank everyone who nominated and voted for us and of course the judges and organisers.  In launching Purple Poppadom we wanted to create a new style of cuisine, which we term ‘Nouvelle Indian Cuisine’ and we are so pleased that people are enjoying our new direction.

This is our first award for our very young restaurant.  Lamb plays an important part in our cuisine and I consider Welsh lamb to be the very best in the world.

Our winning lamb dish – Raan Akbari – represents a fusion of Mughal and Welsh cuisine styles.  It features a Welsh lamb shank, which we roast and finish in the tandoor, served on a bed of mash; in our case of curried butternut squash, served with mint, in the form of a mint sorbet.

We are very excited by great Welsh ingredients and featured Welsh Lamb, laverbread, cockles and leeks on our recent St David’s Day menu.”

Raman Bijalwan, General Manager and co-founder of Purple Poppadom said:

“The support we have had from people since opening in December has been wonderful.  It is great to see so many diners warming to our new style of cuisine.

This recognition is very important to us and we are only too pleased to promote Welsh lamb and contribution our fellow restaurants are making to life and the economy.”

You can sample our award-winning dish for yourself, it is on the menu today!

Purple Poppadom – Raan Akbari

A classic dish of Mughlai Cuisine, slow braised Welsh lamb shank marinated with spices and finished in the tandoor, served with a curried butternut squash mash, intensely flavoured sauce reduction and mint sorbet

The public have been voting in their thousands (12,893 to be exact up from 11,000 in 2011) and today the organisers of the Welsh Curry House of the Year 2012 reveal the names of the top 30 restaurants, through to the next round of the competition.

Each of the 30 restaurants will be celebrating their success by making a Welsh Lamb Curry available to the public until the end of March.

Please visit:  www.welshcurryhouse.co.uk/news

Chef Anand George with the colourful poppadom

We were intrigued to hear on the Twittersphere that people were talking about making actual purple poppadoms. We are honoured to be discussed in this way and even more so when our new friend Chef Mannie O’Neill,  Head Chef @Centro Cardiff metropolitan university, Tweeted that he had actually made a batch of his own.

Using beetroot juice and dried beetroot powder Mannie has been working hard on his project and so we invited him to join us and our food blogger friends for a taste session.   Mannie had been Tweeting the concept over with our good friends Mark and Carol Adams @gomezadams  and @babettesffest and we invited them all to meet with Chef Anand George for the historic tasting.

It was generally agreed that the colour of the poppadoms are in harmony with the rose pink hues of the restaurant interior and that they went very well with our homemade pickles.

Chef Anand was very grateful for the work and commitment put in by Chef Mannie in creating his tasty snacks, and agreed to meet again to develop the concept further.  We will be bringing more news as developments as they occur.

Mark Adams (left) with Carol Adams, Chef Anand George and Mannie O'Neil