A multi award-winning head chef at an Indian restaurant in Bicester has received another accolade for his cooking.

Arzoo Miah, the owner and head chef of Arzoo Indian Restaurant in Market Square, is one of five chefs selected as finalists at the international masterchef competition held at Northampton College.

The winners will head to Bangladesh in February next year to compete against the Bangladeshi regional finalists.

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Mr Miah said: “I feel great. It’s an honour to have been selected in the regional competition. It’s great to win the award.

“I haven’t been to Bangladesh before, it will be nice to go and compete against the other chefs.”

To finish in the top five, the 48-year-old cooked a starter of king prawns with South Indian spice, a dark butternut squash with honey and mango sauce for mains and pear with honey and strawberry for dessert.

He added: “I’m very proud of the food that I make. I love making new dishes. We change the menu quite often at Arzoo because we, and our customers enjoy trying different food.”

Mr Arzoo, who lives in Bicester, has been a professional chef for 30 years, and opened his restaurants 20 years ago.

“I had one restaurant in Oxford to begin with, then I opened another one in Witney. I just have the Bicester one now.

“I started to make my own recipes at home – seasoned dishes, Indian spices – then I built the restaurants around these recipes.”

This latest award was handed to Mr Arzoo last Monday at an awards evening in Birmingham.

The accolade is the latest in a string of awards picked up by the chef, including being crowned the king of spice by Master Chef Promotions in 2017 and in 2015.

In 2018, the culinary artist battled it out against others in the south central category at Oxford Brookes for the 2018 Asian Restaurant and Takeaway Awards.

He wowed the judges and ended up taking home the Regional Chef of the Year title.

He whipped up three courses which included the feast of Beguni Bahar for starter, which comprises baked aubergines with cheese, sesame seeds and tomato.

For mains, he cooked up Roshun Jinga Nizami, which consisted of king prawns in south Indian spice, roasted on skewers with peppers, shallots and served with chutney.

The side dish was Goan Shakuti, a red salmon steak cooked in fresh spice and herbs with pilau rice.

Mr Arzoo was also crowned winner at the International Indian Chef of the Year Competition in 2011, held at Oxford and Cherwell Valley College.

 

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This story was written by Matthew Norman, he joined the team in 2022 as a Facebook community reporter.

Matthew covers Bicester and focuses on finding stories from diverse communities.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Matthew.norman@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @OxMailMattN1