A CRUISE liner chef was second to naan when he walked off with the top spot in the hottest cooking contest in Southampton.

Goanese chef Lester Carvalho proved he was king of the kormas by winning the city's curry chef of the year competition.

His recipe had no difficulty in currying instant flavour with the four judges - who awarded his traditional Goan dish top marks for authenticity.

His side dish of an onion bhaji was rated "nothing like a normal onion bhaji" by impressed judges.

The 27-year-old chef - who works for P&O cruises on the Southampton-based Oriana - beat traditional curry houses into second place. Runners-up were Chad Miah from Kuti's Restaurant in Oxford Street and Sahed Ali from Apollo Indian take-away in Portsmouth Road, Woolston.

The Oriana, which employs more than 100 chefs, serves curry to cruisers every lunchtime, said head chef Haydn Davies.

"We have plenty of experience and we serve up traditional curries - not the Anglicised versions of some Indian take-aways in Britain.

"Lester cooked his curry just like he would at home in Goa, not too thick but with lots of coconut juice. He's flown back home to celebrate," he said.

Lester will go forward into the regional heats of the competition, and if he is successful there will go into the grand final at Bournemouth on September 8.

The competition was organised by the city council. Peter Wainwright, environment health officer, supervised the contest, held at City College.

"We all tasted the entries and Lester's was of a very high standard. He pipped the others to the post with his authenticity," he said.

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