A highly anticipated awards ceremony celebrated the achievements of pioneering professionals steering the Asian food industry forward on Monday 8th January in Oxfordshire.
The inaugral Asian Restaurant Owners Network (ARON) honoured special guests from across the country, including celebrity chef Dipna Anand, and influential woman of the year 2017 Sarah Ali Choudhury, among others.
Held at the Indian and Thai restaurant The Snooty Mehmaan in Farringdon, which supported the charity Unite4Humanity ARON and its awards were created to bring Asian restaurant owners together as one national unit to share ideas and methodologies, improve the running of businesses, and to “remove the tainted stereotype associated with Asian cuisine”.
Alongside this, ARON, which currently has 400 members, says it “implores the investment of training for the youth; aiming to change the youth’s mindset, inspire a generation, and build a brighter future of excellence in British Asian entrepreneurs”.
Sarah Ali Choudhury announced all the winners and presented them with their Awards on stage with founder Rehan Uddin.
Of the 13 award categories, here are the winners:
- Entrepreneur of the Year – Millennium Balti – Mohammed Abdul Ahad
- Young Entrepreneur – Fetcham Tandoori – Anis Haq
- Best Concept – The Brilliant/Tottenham Hotspur Fc – Dipna Anand
- O.I.C. – Michelangelo of Indian Cooking – Soyful Alom
- Gastronomic Genius – Bangla Dining Club – Anwar Miah
- Most Inspirational – Pappadoms – Sayd Ahmed
- Best Innovator – Bay Leaf – Tofozul Miah
- Advertising & Promotion – The Chilli Pickle
- Industry Tactician – Goldstar Chefs – Hans Raj Ram
- Aron Member of the Year – Zakaria Chowdhury
- Big Boss Award – Ajmal Mushtaq – Mushtaqs
- Heritage Award – Mohammed Ali Aerosol, MBE
- #AsianTechStyle Award – Munayam Khan – Lasan Group
It was an honour to be part of such a prestigious event, to meet the winners and present them with their Awards
I’m very proud of what Rehan and his team have achieved in a short space of time. The Asian Restaurant Owners Network (ARON) have so much to look forward to and I’m very excited about the future of ARON.