Press releases

To celebrate National Curry Week (22-28 November 2009), visitbirmingham.com and Birmingham City Football Club have teamed up to develop a very special Blues curry to give away to fans for their game against Fulham on Saturday November 21, cementing Birmingham once and for all as the UK’s curry capital.

Visitbirmingham.com, an official partner to Birmingham City FC, brought in Blues players James McFadden and Franck Queudrue to help produce a curry in a cook-off last week, where Franck’s curry was chosen by a panel of top judges, including Blues Vice President Mike Wiseman.

Fans were able to name the chosen curry via a competition on visitbirmingham.com, with Sutton Coldfield resident Ian Treadwell’s creation chosen as the perfect name for the curry, “The Blue Queudrue”.

Ian said: “After reading that Franck had won on the website, the name just came to me. I’m a big Blues fan so to name this dish is an honour. Franck is a big favourite with the fans at St. Andrew’s so naming the curry after him was appropriate. I’ll definitely be down at the Royal George to taste the dish...I hope it’s not too hot!”

‘The Blue Queudrue’ will be served at the Royal George pub from 12.30pm on Saturday, as well as in the corporate hospitality lounges at St. Andrew’s for the Premier League fixture against Fulham.

The curry has been produced in association with award-winning Birmingham restaurant, Lasan, which was recently crowned best local Indian restaurant by Gordon Ramsay’s The F Word.

Dave Hodgson of Marketing Birmingham said: “Good food is at the heart of Birmingham and the city is now home to more Michelin stars than any other English city outside London. Curry has always been an important part of the Birmingham restaurant scene, and over the past few years has developed into high quality cuisine, especially in restaurants such as Lasan . It’s great to see a curry like this one, created for Birmingham City FC.

“Football has a global audience of 3.13bn, so by working with Birmingham City we can show potential visitors to the city what we have to offer.”

Michael Dunford, Birmingham City FC Chief Executive Officer, added:  “We are proud to be taking part in National Curry Week and especially to be producing our very own Blues Curry.

“I am sure the curry will be a huge hit with our fans and corporate clients when they visit St. Andrew’s this weekend for the match against Fulham.”