A wonderful Big Curry reception at the World Curry Festival

Team Big Curry took on brave new international heights at the end of September, when we decamped to Leeds city centre as the Charity Partner to the second annual World Curry Festival.

Backed up by a fantastic team of chefs from Grantham Catering Support Unit, we prepared for the curry masses with the following:

72 jars of Sharwood’s sauces (a cheer for donated sauce jars!); 125kg of Yorkshire Poultry chicken (hurrah for gifted chicken!); 60kg of Veetee Basmati Rice (once more hurrah for kindly contributed rice!); 9 TA Catering staff; 3 Big Curry fundraising bods, buckets never far from hands; 1 field kitchen tent; 1 Charity gazebo; 1 TA Catering recruitment stand; 1 Sharwood’s prize draw hamper; Countless thousands of Charity wristbands; Untold quantities of Charity pin badges; And frankly immeasurably high spirits…

…which were not for a moment disappointed. From the open gates at 11am on Friday morning, to late Sunday night, the support from a curry-loving Leeds public was quite overwhelming. With a colourful festival atmosphere, live cooking demonstrations, pop-up restaurants and different world curry smells wafting tantalisingly from every tent, it’s really no great surprise that the event turned out to be such a hit. And right at the centre of it all, dominating the entrance with myriad tents and a terrific uniform presence, was The Soldiers’ Charity Big Curry campaign.

Preparing the curry pots in the field kitchen tent

About that terrific uniform presence, for a moment: a huge and heartfelt Big Curry thank you must go out to the cadets of Leeds University OTC, who despite the fact that they had their own Fresher’s Week recruitment gig taking place on campus, still turned up with enthusiasm and commitment to shake our buckets and talk us up to the general public. True credit to them for all the effort, and all the smiles.

Credit too must go to our resident ‘celebrity chef’ Sgt Sange Tamang from 10 The Queen’s Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment, who took to the demonstration stage on Sunday lunchtime and regaled the 100-strong seated public with tales of Regimental cooking on and off the field, while stirring up a spectacular Gurkha lamb curry which this Big Curry team member can attest was absolutely delicious. So delicious in fact that we have persuaded Sgt Tamang to share his inspired recipe with us – please follow the link below to download and enjoy.

Sgt Sange Tamang’s Gurkha lamb curry recipe

Across the weekend we raised a fantastic £5,658.40 in donations from the generous Leeds public, and in return shifted 7000 pots of curry. And what’s truly amazing about these figures is that we think that had we cooked more, we’d have moved more, which is so encouraging as we begin talks for making an even bigger splash at next year’s event. So our final Big Curry thank you must go to Zulfi Karim, World Curry Festival founder, and his lovely team. Without your support and enthusiasm for our campaign, we never could have made such an impact over one weekend in Leeds. The sky’s the limit for this popular Festival, and we’re thrilled to be a part of it. Bring on Big Curry 2012!

For more information about the Big Curry campaign and how you can get involved with hosting your own event, contact Anna on 0845 504 0982 or email ashort@soldierscharity.org