London’s Cinnamon Club has attempted to break the Guinness World Record for the hottest ever curry, with head chef Vivek Singh’s lamb-based Bollywood Burner.
The Hyderabadi Mirch ka Salan (curry of chillis), was launched on Thursday at the London restaurant, for chilli-heads looking for a challenge.
The dish, based on a recipe from Southern India, has been given a chilli twist by Singh to incorporate the world’s second hottest chilli, Britain’s very own Dorset Naga, and is so hot that diners are asked to sign a disclaimer before they try it.
Curry lovers were given the chance to sample the dish, which won’t ever feature on the Cinnamon Club menu, for themselves, and while most could only manage a small mouthful before breaking out in the sweats, some surpassed even Singh’s expectations.
“One guy came in, sat down, ate a whole portion, shook my hand and left,” he said. “He was absolutely fine, but very sweaty.”
Singh’s claim that his curry is the hottest in the world, has angered the owner of the Rupali Indian restaurant in Newcastle, Rukon Latif, who claims his Curry Hell dish with crushed Indian bird’s eye chillis, is the hottest.
Previously unaware of the supposed clash of the curries, Singh exclusively told BigHospitality: “He’s lost it already. My chilli’s are the hottest, but of course there is no real way to measure heat, there’s only the Scoville scale which measures capsaicin, not the amount of chilli you put in a dish.
“I’m not much of a chilli man myself, I think with Indian food there is so much more going on. This is all a bit of fun really.”
The Bollywood Burner initially gives diners a burst of flavour from the array of meat and spices, but after about four seconds, the heat sets in.
Cultivated from the hottest chilli in the world, the Naga Jolokia (1,040,000 on the Scoville scale) the Dorset Naga has reached as high as 970,000 and can be found growing in the West Bexington area of Dorset. The humble jalapeno reaches just 8,000.
Singh has said that the Bollywood Burner will still be available at the Cinnamon Club if booked in advance. He is expected to hear the results from the Guinness Book of Records in three weeks.