I had intended this week to tell you about the many wonders of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s superbly renovated theatres in Stratford, which I was delighted to be shown around on Tuesday in company with most of the leading figures in arts journalism. But then arrived, by email, the pictures on the right from another event at which I was also privileged to be present. Stratford can wait till next week. First comes Sunday night’s British Curry Awards.

I was invited to this lustrous annual bash by my old friend Aziz-ur Rahman, whose eponymous restaurant in Curry Road — sorry, Cowley Road — has long been the destination of choice for lovers of Indian (by which I mean Bangladeshi) food.

Aziz was up for the award of Best Restaurant in the South East and, as you can probably guess from the jubilant faces in the main picture, he won it. (Digressing briefly for a moment, I must comment, somewhat enviously, on the superb head of hair sported by the comedian Justin Lee Collins who did a brilliant job of compering the evening. His only rivals in this department are the RSC directors Gregory Doran and Rupert Goold, both of whom were present on Tuesday).

I wish I could show a photograph of the scene I enjoyed at the start of the evening as I surveyed the ballroom at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane from the balcony (by which I mean bar) above. You must take my word for the fact that the flower-bedecked tables for more than 1,500 people, with their gleaming glassware and snow-white napery, looked absolutely amazing.

Soon they were to be adorned by steaming dishes of glorious food, by which time I was not looking from above but was down below eating, enthusiastically.

Our joy was unconfined when Aziz was announced as the winner of the award.

As he told me afterwards: “The South East region category was the biggest and the most competitive and to have won that I am doubly delighted. The British Curry Award have been described as the Oscars of the curry industry. They are attended by many VIPs, ministers, MPs, community leaders, celebrity chefs and top restaurateurs, and it was an honour and a privilege to be on stage to receive the award in front of so many people. I think it is wonderful for my chef, staff and management — and for Oxford — to boast we have the best curry restaurant in the South East.”

Of the celebrities present none (save perhaps the admirable Chris Tarrant) lent greater lustre to the occasion than the genius chef Heston Blumenthal.

I think it might be agreed, though, that the picture above serves as an awful warning of what might befall the superchef if he eats too many of his pies. Forget The Fat Duck. He’d be The Fat [expletive deleted].