By John HowardCHEFS, catering students and lecturers are waiting to see if they have won a place in the Guinness Book of Records for cooking the world's largest curry.

By John Howard

CHEFS, catering students and lecturers are waiting to see if they have won a place in the Guinness Book of Records for cooking the world's largest curry.

The record attempt at Suffolk College in Ipswich yesterday saw ingredients including 6kg of curry powder, 5kg of crushed almonds and 2kg of coconut powder cooked into a huge vegetable curry.

The chefs believe they smashed the current world record by a quarter of a ton by producing a giant curry weighing in at just over 2.76tons - equivalent to 12,000 portions - but will have to wait for their attempt to be validated.

Chefs from the Mogul restaurant in Manningtree and Saffron Walden had come up with the challenge, which was scheduled to start at 9am.

Four hours were put aside for preparing the vegetables and boiling the water in order to finish the curry, by 5pm.

But traffic problems on the A12 caused delays in getting the cooking pot - which measured 7ft high by 6ft wide - which meant the curry was still bubbling away into the evening.

Seven chefs from restaurants across East Anglia, London and Bournemouth helped with the challenge, including Manik Miah from the Maharani restaurant in Ipswich.

Minar Miah, owner of the Mogul, said: “To create a record would be wonderful, we are just waiting to hear.”

Suffolk College catering students assisted in preparing the vegetables, in seven teams of five students and a lecturer.

Each team of students was asked to prepare 250kg of vegetables, the amount an average family of four would eat in a year.

Into the pot went 350kg of potatoes, 350kg of onions, 350kg of carrots, 7kg of green chillies, 70kg of peppers, 70 heads of cauliflower, 30kg of frozen peas and 100kg of dried mashed potato.

They were followed by 30 catering tins of tomatoes, 1kg of turmeric powder, 6kg of curry powder, 5kg of crushed almonds, 2kg of coconut powder, 2kg of garlic puree, 2kg of fresh coriander, 3kg of dried coriander, 80 litres of natural yoghurt, 80 litres of cream, five litres of oil and five litres of lemon juice.

Portions of the curry will be sold to students and onlookers, with all proceeds donated to the Mayor of Ipswich's charities.

Ipswich mayor, Penny Breakwell, who went to the college to see the record attempt, said: “It has been a wonderful event and I am so pleased the college have gone for this record.

“I truly hope everyone involved will have broken the record. I am doubly pleased the event has been held as hopefully it will have raised lots of money for great causes.”

Tracey Bailey, promotions manager for the college, said: “It was a great task for the students to be involved in and a fun day for everyone. It is not every day that some of our students can be involved in an event as big as this one.”

john.howard@eadt.co.uk