Over 100,000 of the nation's curry lovers have voted for their favourite restaurants to determine the shortlist of this year's Asian Curry Awards – the UK's only pan-Asian culinary accolades.

A team of judges, led by Pat Chapman, editor of the Cobra Good Curry Guide, are now touring the country to determine this year's winners. The top restaurants will be revealed at a glittering awards ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane in London's Mayfair on Sunday 12th November 2017.

Over 900 guests including the county's leading restaurateurs with their staff and customers, plus ambassadors and embassy officials, food writers, politicians, VIPs and celebrities, will attend. This year the awards were open to the country's 20,000 Bangladeshi, Burmese, Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, Singaporean, Sri Lankan, Thai, and Vietnamese restaurants and takeaways.

Last year's top accolade went to London's La Port Des Indes, which was named Fine Dining Restaurant of the Year.

“Intense competition, chef shortages, rising costs make the restaurant business incredibly challenging – but the rewards for those who get the formula right are considerable,” said Yawar Khan, Chairman of the Asian Curry Awards.

The Asian Curry Awards are design to recognise the best in the industry, encouraging ever higher standards and to inspire the next generation of chefs and restaurateurs to join this dynamic sector.

Pat Chapman, chairman of the judges said: “The best restaurateurs have responded to customers' changing customer tastes and encourage their chefs to innovate and produce the exciting, healthy and authentic dishes that today's discerning diners demand.”

The judging criteria is heavily weighted towards the quality of the food and cooking; additional points will be awarded for ambience, customer service, community involvement and hygiene.

Entertainment will be provided by London-born British-Bangladeshi singer Shapla Salique, famed for her original, powerful and emotionally-charged performances. The East London raised singer-song writer, is known for her unique and edgy acoustic Bengali folk music, with jazz and funk influences.

A Bollywood dance troupe will deliver an energetic and highly stylised display of colour and movement.

Rolling Stones tribute band Not The Rolling Stones, whose early work was heavily influenced by the revered Indian sitar player, Ravi Shankar, will complete the line-up.

This November, for one week only, Londoners will be able to say 'Hallou-mi!' to the latest pop-up restaurant with halloumi in every course on the menu. This exciting new venture has been launched by the Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) as a way of showcasing their national cheese and entice people to visit the island.

Located in trendy Hoxton in partnership with 100 Hoxton, the restaurant will open for one week only on Monday 13th November. Created especially for the event by Executive Chef Francis Puyat, the menu comprises an array of halloumi-inspired dishes including:

• Halloumi and cauliflower fritters with a lime pickle yoghurt
• A fresh grilled courgette and halloumi salad with fennel, pine nuts, harissa, honey & lemon
• A chargrilled halloumi flatbread with butternut & dukkah spices
• Crumbed halloumi fingers with a tomato chilli jam
• & to finish off, the best halloumi ice cream you will ever taste!
• Diners can also choose one of two Cypriot inspired cocktails by Mixologist Chad Canning formerly of Nopi: a harissa Bloody Mary or a Cilantro & Ginger Martini

CTO is delighted to have the opportunity to showcase the versatility of Cypriot halloumi. UK Director, Orestis Rossides said 'Halloumi is Cyprus' most popular cheese and we're so excited to be able to bring a key element of Cypriot culture to our pop up venture with 100 Hoxton.'

Andrew Zilouf, Director of 100 Hoxton said: 'As lovers of innovative food, we were thrilled to partner with the CTO for this project and have worked really hard to create a menu that we hope is both inspiring and delicious!'

Theo Paphitis said: 'Cyprus and its food are true passions of mine and the pop up restaurant will bring the delicious Cypriot cheese, halloumi, to every dish on the menu...even the dessert!  I'm sure many other people will fall in love with the Cypriot national cheese once they've tried it – and perhaps even visit Cyprus to discover the rest of the island's delicious cuisine and wine'.

Aiding digestion, encouraging weight loss and giving Adam's Chocolate its unique flavour profile and velvety fudge-like texture, yacon is a natural sweetener that is bringing a new dimension to raw chocolate. A syrup derived from the roots of the yacon plant, which is a member of the sunflower family and native to Peru, this ground-breaking sweetener is low in calories, packed with antioxidants and is the lowest scoring natural sugar on the glycemic index, scoring between 1 and 5, meaning it won't cause a sharp rise or fall in blood sugar levels.

Discovered by head chef, Adam Farag, while exploring the potential of food to overcome health issues over ten years ago, yacon has become a cornerstone of Adam's Chocolate's brand since Adam became the first chocolatier to master the marriage of this syrup with the rare criollo tree's precious bounty, cacao. Processed at a low temperature to retain more of its nutrients than any other natural sugar, yacon has a subtle pear-like sweetness which allows the natural flavours of this Soil Association and Vegan Society certified cold pressed chocolate to shine through.

Combined with the other 'Lost Crops of the Incas', lucuma and maca, which have been consumed for their medicinal properties for thousands of years, along with colourful superfoods which are woven into the raw cacao to create flavours such as Goji Berry and Pistachio and the Great Taste award-winning Mint, each cube of Adam's Chocolate contains a healthy dose of magnesium, copper, zinc, manganese, phosphorous and potassium, as well as 17 amino acids, including all nine essential amino acids.

Launching their new look packs last month, following a year of support from The Seed Fund after taking the philanthropic organisation's top prize in 2016, Adam and co-owner, Mark Claydon, have even have found time to grow their own yacon for the past three seasons. Standing up to two metres tall in their back gardens, as it stores nutrients inside its tubers under the soil in preparation for winter, this Peruvian plant has laid down strong roots in the South West.

Sales of gourds at Waitrose are up a spooktacular 260% as shoppers look to the unusual vegetable to decorate their homes for Halloween and the autumn season. The unprecedented popularity for gourds this year has meant Waitrose has had to increase its orders of the gnarly veg to keep up with the surge in demand.

Gourds are part of the cucurbit family which includes pumpkins, watermelons, butternut squash and cucumbers. They are mainly bought for their quirky decorative appeal but can also be spiced up and baked or made into soups.

Waitrose Horticultural Buyer, Samantha Brett, says, "It's no longer enough to have a lonely pumpkin on the doorstep. Our customers have been inspired by doorstep displays from the US and want to replicate their seasonal showstopping arrangements. This is not just restricted to the doorstep - shoppers are bringing the outside in and decorating the inside of their homes too with colourful gourds, pumpkins and other seasonal produce – not just for a one day Halloween wonder but for an extended autumnal celebration too."

From sharpening knife skills and refining recipes to geeking out on the science behind the techniques, brand new online cookery school, The Devilled Egg opens a world of poaching, preserving and patisserie at the touch of a button. With in-depth video tutorials and downloadable recipes added weekly, an A-Z of useful terminology and techniques, plus access to support and advice from the chefs, this new-look online platform delivers a culinary masterclass to any home kitchen.

Welcoming autumn's glut of orchard fruits and late vegetable harvests, The Devilled Egg's head chef, Barbora Ormerod, has prepared tutorials to take the season's staples to lip-smacking new places, including a recipe for autumnal gyoza, packed with pumpkin, tofu and quinoa. Designed to teach home cooks a new skill for their repertoire, whilst experimenting with fresh flavour combinations, these gyoza parcels reinvent a Japanese street food classic with trademark Devilled Egg twists, including Amaretti biscuits in the filling.

Whether it's learning the fundamentals, deciphering the jargon or mastering tricky techniques, subscribers have the flexibility to work through The Devilled Egg step-by-step, as they explore, experiment and embrace the art of home cooking. Thanks to Barbora's creative, practical and encouraging approach to teaching, seasoned home cooks and novices alike can challenge themselves at their own pace and make the most of autumn's bounty, whether served up with steak, packaged in pastry or preserved as presents ready for Christmas.