WOOLTON curry house Holdi is in line for the "best restaurant in the North West" accolade at the British Curry Awards 2015.
The restaurant, which opened in 2011, will first have to beat off spicy competition from curry houses in darkest Oldham, darkest Chester and darkest Ashton Under Lyne when the "curry oscars" are announced at a gala dinner a week on Monday (November 30) in darkest Battersea.
This year 218,000 curry award nominations came from the public with 2,459 restaurants being nominated.
Despite their enduring popularity, organisers say two curry houses a week are closing in the UK because of immigration restrictions. It warns: "Without drastically needed change, curry houses will be eroded from British life in the same way that local pubs continue to be."
The primary contributing factor to the crisis, it says, is the government’s immigration policy, which requires skilled workers from outside the EU to earn £29,570, while curry chef salaries are typically closer to £25,000. Visa applications are often refused and it has led to a skill shortage.
British Curry Awards founder Enam Ali MBE is calling for temporary work permits to be issued which "would be no burden on the welfare system".
“The UK curry industry continues to contribute a phenomenal amount to the UK economy despite the challenges it still faces due to staffing issues derived from immigration policy," he said.
He added that Prime Minister David Cameron, addressing the British Curry Awards in 2013, "recognised the commitment that needs to be made to this lucrative industry in the face of adversity.”
And not all those who are up and running are completely above board, oh no.
"Certain restaurateurs falsely claim to have been previous award recipients at British Curry Awards and mislead their local customers with fake certificates – an issue that Trading Standards Agency takes extremely seriously as it falsely entices customers and compromises consumer confidence," it says here.
