A BRADFORD halal restaurant will be serving up a feast for David Cameron and hundreds of leading Muslim guests at his annual Eid party today.
Kitchen staff from Little Germany's Cona restaurant have been preparing since yesterday for the prestigious Number 10 event.
The reception's guest list includes government ministers, community and business leaders, charities and public servants from across the UK.
Food preparation got under way at the Bradford restaurant before it was transported to the capital, where the finishing touches were to be added in the Downing Street kitchens.
Co-owners Armi Ahmed and Oman Rana will also be there to meet the Prime Minister, just five months after they opened Cona's doors in Bradford specialising in European halal food.
Mr Rana said: "We could not ask for a better endorsement of Cona than for Mr Cameron and his guests to taste our halal cuisine for themselves."
Mr Ahmed added: "In the five months since we opened we have become a food destination. We get regular foodies coming from London, Edinburgh, Portsmouth and Ireland because there is nowhere else like us producing such high quality halal food."
Ten new jobs were created at the restaurant when it was opened by its businessmen and self-confessed ‘foodie’ owners, who wanted it to appeal to Bradford’s growing band of young Muslim professionals facing a restricted choice of food in non-halal restaurants.
The Cona, which is named after a town outside Venice, has room for 40 individual diners and also be hired for special occasions, it makes lunchtime sandwiches for office workers and has a one-hour business lunch menu.
The restaurant was two years in the planning and staff were recruited locally. The kitchen team is led by head chef Gavin Jackson, who has previous experience at the Michelin-starred Devonshire Arms at Bolton Abbey.
The full Downing Street menu has to stay under wraps but Mr Amir was happy to give a taste of the canapé selection, which will include a truffle and white bean puree, pickled girolle mushrooms and watercress, Jerusalem Artichoke veloute with extra virgin olive oil and bruschettes of asparagus, quail egg, truffle and rapeseed mayonnaise.
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