British Kebab Awards joy for Peterborough city centre and Stamford restaurants

The UK's kofte kings have been pita'd against each other as the British Kebab Awards 2018 finalists were unveiled last week - and The Turkish |Kitchen is proudly flying the flag for Peterborough.
Chef Nelo Risto cooking on charcoal at the Turkish Restaurant at New Road. EMN-180213-165253009Chef Nelo Risto cooking on charcoal at the Turkish Restaurant at New Road. EMN-180213-165253009
Chef Nelo Risto cooking on charcoal at the Turkish Restaurant at New Road. EMN-180213-165253009

The restaurant, in New Road, in the city centre, is in the final nine in the Best Value Restaurant category.

Voting is open here and the winners will be announced on March 12 at a VIP-studded ceremony at the Park Plaza in London.

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Members of the public nominated 5,012 of their favourite kebab shops. These were whittled down to a shortlist of 153 (in 16 categories) based on the number of public votes received with bonus points for nominations from MPs and councillors.

Hygiene, online satisfaction ratings and the number of #BritishKebabAwards tweets of support that a contender got were also taken into account.

Annette Henn, part of the team behind The Turkish Kitchen said she was “thrilled and very excited” to have made the finals.

“We did not put ourselves forward for the awards so this is a great surprise,” she said. “We have done very well to get this far and if it is the case that it is down to our customers liking what we do and voting for us, that makes it even better.

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“I am very excited and thrilled but it is not surprising in a way because we offer very good value in terms of food and service.

“We like to think we are providing tasty food without upping the cost.”

Just down the road in Stamford, The Mad Turk, in St Paul’s Street, is one of 10 finalists in the running to be crowned Best Kebab Restaurant (regional).

The winners of the sixth annual awards will be announced after a final round of judging by the British Kebab Awards judges, including former Tory chairwoman Baroness Warsi, Children’s and Families’ Minister Nadhim Zahawi, Shadow Economic Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, Amjad Bashir MEP and Heart Radio presenter Lucy Horobin.

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Awards sponsors include headline sponsor Just Eat, the UK’s largest takeaway website, plus Galliard Homes, Cobra Beer, Big K, Alton & Co and Bira London.

The founder of the awards, Ibrahim Dogus, is a serial entrepreneur who owns the popular Troia kebab restaurant, a venue close to Parliament renowned with MPs. He also founded the Centre for Turkey Studies (CEFTUS), which is a non-profit organisation working to build bridges between Turkey and the UK, and between Turkish, Kurdish and Cypriot communities.

He said: “Kebab is fast becoming the nation’s favourite food so it is only right that the superheroes behind this phenomenon are recognised.”

The annual event is the only one to recognise the contribution made by the kebab industry to the British economy - worth more than £2.8billion a year, supporting around 200,000 jobs. This year’s awards will raise money for the bone and soft tissue cancer charity Sarcoma UK.

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