By Craig RobinsonAN award-winning chef is hoping to spice up the lives of students when he attempts to create the world's largest curry. Sumu Miah, head chef at the Mogul Indian restaurant in Manningtree and winner of the British Culinary Award, will cook the four-tonne vegetable curry to raise money for the Lord Mayor's Charities.

By Craig Robinson

AN award-winning chef is hoping to spice up the lives of students when he attempts to create the world's largest curry.

Sumu Miah, head chef at the Mogul Indian restaurant in Manningtree and winner of the British Culinary Award, will cook the four-tonne vegetable curry to raise money for the Lord Mayor's Charities.

Mr Miah, who is also a lecturer at Suffolk College in Ipswich, hopes his culinary creation will turn him into a world-beater, earning him a place in the record books for cooking the largest curry.

The 6ft high, 7ft wide dish in which the giant curry will be cooked was on display yesterday outside the Mogul ahead.

The world-record attempt will be made on June 14 at Suffolk College - and portions of the curry will then be sold to students for £1 each.

Mustafa Olad, designer of the huge cooking pot, said: “It can hold around 14,000 portions of curry and should beat the previous world record by about one-and-a-half tonnes.

“We will hopefully be cooking it live on TV and everyone is invited along to the college to enjoy the fun.

“It is this type of event that the Guinness Book Of Records was created for. We can have a go at becoming world-beaters, whilst at the same time raise a lot of money for a very worthwhile cause.”

The giant dish should have cost £4,500 to make, but Halstead-based Hunwick Engineers charged only £2,400 for materials.

CURRY FACTFILE

n The origin of the word curry can be traced back to the Tamil word kari, which means spiced sauce.

n Indian food is now the UK's favourite cuisine, with Indian restaurants outnumbering Chinese restaurants by two to one.

n The Indian food industry in the UK is worth £3.2billion and accounts for two-thirds of all eating out with Indian restaurants in Britain serving about 2.5 million customers every week.

n There are about 9,000 Indian curry houses in the UK, employing an estimated 70,000 staff. In London alone there are more Indian restaurants than in Bombay and Delhi.

n One of the earliest known recipes for meat in a spicy sauce appeared on tablets found near Babylon in Mesopotamia, dated about 1700BC.

n The first commercial curry powder appeared in about 1780 and Britain's first curry house opened in 1809. It was called the Hindustani Coffee House and was located in London's Portman Square.

n Chicken tikka masala remains the most popular Indian dish. It is thought to originate in Britain after an enterprising Indian chef had the idea of adding a tomato and onion paste to the grilled chicken to satisfy the British preference for food that was not dry.

n Scientists at Nottingham Trent University have discovered people begin to crave for a curry because the spices arouse and stimulate the taste buds.