{"id":7222,"date":"2015-11-03T18:15:54","date_gmt":"2015-11-03T18:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/?p=7222"},"modified":"2015-11-03T18:15:54","modified_gmt":"2015-11-03T18:15:54","slug":"chaiholics-great-cup-tea-champion-curry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2015\/11\/03\/chaiholics-great-cup-tea-champion-curry\/","title":{"rendered":"Chaiholics. Great for a cup of tea &#8211; and a champion curry."},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_7228\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7228\" style=\"width: 644px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Chaiholics-4-e1446570191265.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-7228 \" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Chaiholics-4-e1446572163504-300x67.jpg\" alt=\"Chaiholics on Wellfield Road, Roath.\" width=\"644\" height=\"144\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7228\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7228 \" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Chaiholics-4-e1446572163504-300x67.jpg\" alt=\"Chaiholics on Wellfield Road, Roath.\" width=\"644\" height=\"144\" \/><\/noscript><\/a> <strong>Chaiholics on Wellfield Road, Roath.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><em><strong>Reporter Will Kirby calls in on the Welsh Curry Chef of the Year as his Roath bistro\u00a0celebrates its first birthday<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>You\u2019d struggle to miss Chaiholics. There seems to be a buzz about the place at all hours, whether it\u2019s a group of friends catching up over mid-morning cup of tea or one of their many regulars popping in to collect a\u00a0takeaway &#8211; the young caf\u00e9-come-bistro is always alive with activity.<br \/>\nThe daytime teahouse transforms into a lively bistro in the evenings and the aromas coming from the kitchen can be smelled up and down Roath\u2019s Wellfield Road. The teahouse has been enormously popular since it opened in 2013 but this week Chaiholics are celebrating a successful first year of food service.<br \/>\nRoath has a wealth of little independent cafes and eateries serving up all kinds of delights from all corners of the world, so owner Ray\u2019s decision to start serving food in the evenings was a brave one.<br \/>\nHowever, thanks to the hard work of staff and the support of the local community, the introduction of an Indian kitchen has taken Chaiholics from strength to strength and the business now has a lot to boast about. As well as being awarded a Certificate of Excellence after being ranked 15<sup>th<\/sup> in the TripAdvisor list of the best restaurants in Cardiff, head chef Pramod Nair has been crowned The Welsh Curry Chef of The Year 2015.<br \/>\nThis year was only the second time the title had been awarded and after a nationwide poll \u2013 which received nearly 18,000 votes &#8211; Wales\u2019 top 30 chefs were selected from over 230 restaurants.<br \/>\nThe finalists were given a loin of lamb as their main ingredient, and from there they had to create two pre-plated dishes in 90 minutes, one for presentation and one for taste.<br \/>\nPramod said: \u201cI marinated the loin with coriander, cumin, chilli and different blend of spices and pan-roasted it, and along with that I made masala fried sweetbread and a turnip chard. I also made a special South Indian korma sauce.\u201d<br \/>\nAlthough he hadn\u2019t been nervous during the earlier rounds, the final was very stressful.<br \/>\n\u201cWhen I got into the finals I knew I had to give my best,\u201d he said.<br \/>\n\u201cYou decide last minute what you want to do, there\u2019s no pre-planning. You\u2019re given the ingredients and it&#8217;s ready, steady cook!<br \/>\n\u201cThe only thing I had in my mind was to make sure the loin was pink, not well done like other Indian restaurants.\u201d<br \/>\nPramrod credits his experiences of working with a variety of different culinary styles as a factor behind his title, which he won in May and marks another achievement in his extraordinary career.<br \/>\nHis story began in India, where he joined the Taj Hotel Group and worked his way up to the role of executive chef. During this time he also cooked for both former Indian president Dr Abdul Kalan as well as Queen Elizabeth II during a state visit in 1997.<br \/>\nHe also holds Icelandic citizenship, having worked there for eight years in the Austur India Felagid, widely regarded as one of the best Indian restaurants in Europe. Mr Nair also worked in Norway before establishing himself in Cardiff in 2011, starting out with the Mint &amp; Mustard group before joining Chaiholics last year.<br \/>\nPramod\u2019s dishes are certainly one of the highlights of Chaiholics, but their successes have come from other areas too.<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7237\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7237\" style=\"width: 349px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Chaiholics-5.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-7237 \" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Chaiholics-5-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Chaiholics 5\" width=\"349\" height=\"262\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7237\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7237 \" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Chaiholics-5-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Chaiholics 5\" width=\"349\" height=\"262\" \/><\/noscript><\/a> <strong>One of the classic south Indian dishes served at Chaiholics.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nCustomer Wayne Courtney said: \u201cA large part of their success, as well as the food, is the friendliness.\u201d<br \/>\nThe warm environment hits you as soon as you step through the door and this is something owner Ray credits his staff for.<br \/>\n\u201cThey\u2019re all great staff, who are both enthusiastic and love what they do,\u201d he said.<br \/>\nRay, Pramod and the staff will be hoping their fantastic first year is a sign of things to come. There&#8217;s a new menu to look forward to next month and right now the future is looking very bright.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reporter Will Kirby calls in on the Welsh Curry Chef of the Year as his Roath bistro\u00a0celebrates its first birthday You\u2019d struggle to miss Chaiholics. There seems to be a buzz about the place at all hours, whether it\u2019s a group of friends catching up over mid-morning cup of tea or one of their many regulars popping in to collect a\u00a0takeaway &#8211; the young caf\u00e9-come-bistro is always alive with activity. The daytime teahouse transforms into a lively bistro in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[111,40,14,212,292],"tags":[2944,398,3216,213],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-7222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food-and-drink","category-going-out","category-longer-reads","category-roath","category-uncategorized","tag-curry","tag-food","tag-indian","tag-roath"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Chaiholics. A great cup of tea and a champion curry<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Chaiholics on Wellfield Road, Roath. You\u2019d struggle to miss Chaiholics. Whether it&#039;s friends drinking a cup of tea or people popping in for a takeaway curry\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2015\/11\/03\/chaiholics-great-cup-tea-champion-curry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chaiholics. A great cup of tea and a champion curry\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Chaiholics on Wellfield Road, Roath. You\u2019d struggle to miss Chaiholics. Whether it&#039;s friends drinking a cup of tea or people popping in for a takeaway curry\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2015\/11\/03\/chaiholics-great-cup-tea-champion-curry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-11-03T18:15:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Chaiholics-4-e1446572163504-300x67.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cathyduncan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cathyduncan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cathyduncan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2015\/11\/03\/chaiholics-great-cup-tea-champion-curry\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2015\/11\/03\/chaiholics-great-cup-tea-champion-curry\/\",\"name\":\"Chaiholics. 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