00:00With restaurants across Leeds and Yorkshire winning big at the English Curry Awards 2025,
00:06we visited Bengal Lounge in Wetherby, who have been reflecting on their
00:09Local Restaurant of the Year Outstanding Achievement Award,
00:13while showing us how they prepare their signature dish.
00:16Since we work in my first job in food industry, in restaurant,
00:20and since we work in then I had an ambition to open a business.
00:25In 2014, I met Chef in another restaurant, and then we planned to open a business.
00:35I really would like to give thanks to the people of Wetherby and the surrounding area.
00:41They are supporting us since we opened our door in 2015,
00:46and through the COVID time they also support us, which was a hard time for everyone.
00:52We are really grateful to the people of Wetherby.
00:57We prepared a dish today called Noa Abikhana, which is a very, very good dish.
01:04It's a signature dish.
01:06It's loads of spice involved to it.
01:09It's called the 21 spice combined together.
01:12We use a plate of chicken, cooked in the tandoori first,
01:16and then re-cooked in the pan with 21 spices.
01:20And it's not that spicy, it's medium spicy.
01:23My dad's been working at Benga Lounge for, you know, quite a while.
01:26He's always been in the food industry.
01:29I used to go to college, and then I wanted to work here for a little bit
01:32just to get, you know, see how, what he does.
01:35I came, I was working about part-time for just a little bit,
01:39and then I gradually liked it, and then I just went into full-time.
01:43It's really nice working here with the team members,
01:45and especially Varit Bahadad as well, to seeing, you know,
01:48how he brought this all up, and then, you know,
01:51everything that he had done for us, where it actually came from.
01:56He's been cooking for, since...
01:5815.
02:0015, you know, that's...
02:02And he's 15 now.
02:03And now he's 50.
02:04He's been cooking for a long time.
02:06And it's given us more inspiration to work harder, you know,
02:10and it's, honestly, it's really hard to provide good food
02:15and good quality service to make them, make local people happy.
02:20And we don't need...
02:21And local people are giving our, every time, our feedback.
02:26All the wars that we've been to, they always call it a competition,
02:30but we don't see it as a competition.
02:32We like working with everybody, you know,
02:34we want everybody to gain the same awards as us.
02:37You know, all the restaurants, we would like to inspire them
02:41to get the same amount of awards, you know,
02:43the same amount of busyness, the customer love, all the support.
02:47As much as we deserve this award, our customer deserves the same.
02:52Without our customer, this establishment is nothing.
02:55So we are really grateful, again,
02:57to the people of Weatherby and surrounding area.
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