Third British Kebab Awards held in London

Kebab houses, one of the most important lines of business for Turkish and Turkish origin entrepreneurs from Turkey and Northern Cyprus in the U.K., recently competed in the third annual British Kebab Awards. The award-granting event took place at the Waterloo Park Plaza Hotel with nearly 1,200 participants including 150 British parliamentarians, more than 60 members of the House of Lords, mayors of 17 municipalities and nearly 100 members of the London City Council. The winners were chosen by a jury composed of businessmen, politicians, journalists and representatives of the kebab industry in the U.K. along with the public votes.

Located in the Stoke Newington district of London, Süper Kebab Ocakbaşı restaurant won the "Best takeaway in London" award. Turkish contestants Murat Poyraz and Mazlum Demir was awarded "Best young chef," while Hacı Akdoğan was granted the "Best chef award of the year." Operated by Turkish entrepreneur, "Şelale Restaurant" which is located in the Harringay district of London, was rewarded with the "Best Value" award.

Stressing that kebab is now part of British food culture, İbrahim Doğuş, the president of the organizing committee, thanked everybody who contributed to the organization. Welsh politician Neil Kinnock who was the leader of the Labour Party between 1983 and 1992 presented "Turkey's Singer Award" to Turkish singer Zeynep Topkaya, who is also known by her nickname "Felicity" internationally. Topkaya, whose mother is Welsh and father is Turkish, was last seen on Turkish TV personality Acun Ilıcalı's show, and the politician invited Topkaya to breakfast at the parliament building.

The British Kebab Awards is organized to draw attention to the kebab industry, which contributes over 2.2 billion pounds to the British economy annually.