Birmingham's Lasan wins Gordon Ramsay's best restaurant title

Birmingham's Lasan restaurant was crowned Britain's Best Local Restaurant in the final of Gordon Ramsay's F-Word competition last night, after beating Cambridgeshire pub The Pheasant.

After four months of challenges, which included cooking in Ramsay's three-Michelin-starred Royal Hospital Road restaurant, Lasan and The Pheasant went head to head in the final, in which their challenge was to feed 50 diners including food critics from across the country in the F-Word restaurant.

Lasan's head chef and co-owner Aktar Islam clinched the title by impressing Ramsay with his contemporary take on Indian cooking, serving up tandoori masala chicken with a mint chutney, masala beef with curried pumpkin, and a puff pastry parcel stuffed with carrot pudding.

Speaking to the Birmingham Post website, he said that his new goal was to make Lasan the first Michelin-starred Indian restaurant in Birmingham.

"I always wanted to prove Indian food could kick it with the best of them and I hope this win shows that. There's a sophisticated side to it and it deserves to be revered alongside modern British, French and Italian cuisine," he said.

"People left Birmingham to work in London because they did not think there was a platform to shine here and that Birmingham was not sophisticated enough. I hope I've proved them wrong. My aim now is to become the fourth Michelin star restaurant in Birmingham and the first Indian."

The F Word at Channel 4 >>

Gordon Ramsay wrong to eject Surbiton's French Table, says critic >>

Gordon Ramsay aspires to a life out of the kitchen and on TV >>

By Katherine Alano

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