We couldn’t have picked a better month than April to create the first issue of Chaat! The very same month The Soldiers’ Charity urge the public to embrace their love of spice and raise essential funds for soldiers and their families; throughout this very issue’s developments we’ve been constantly regaled with news of great curry- avoured fund raising events and happenings.

A month-long, nationwide campaign, the concept is simple; hold a curry party and raise money eating your favourite dish. Big Curry o cially began ve years ago, but, as the Soldiers’ Charity tell us, the relationship between brave servicemen and Asian avours has actually blossomed over 200 years with 20,000 troops stationed across India as far back as the 18th century.

Naturally Big Curry is blossoming, too. Last year saw 299 events take place across the UK while 2011 has seen a whopping 980. Last year they raised £150,000, this year they’ve set their sights on £450,000. All of which goes directly to the frontline, as respected spice scientist Cyrus Todiwala explained to us.

“It’s crucially important,” he explains earnestly. “These are the men and women who su er the most casualties. They’re directly in the line of re. The things that cripple them are horrendous. Big Curry is an immediate benefit to their cause.”

TODIWALA’S BIG MISSION Surprisingly TV fave Cyrus has been a patron of Big Curry for two years, but has yet to host his own event. Although it’s not for the lack of trying. “I was planning a huge event on the Isle Of Wight but it was too big and unfortunately we had to cancel it. They chickened out,” he laughs. “It was too much for the island to handle. We’re not giving our hopes up, we’ll be doing an event really soon. These things take some planning and thinking! I need to get a big pool of chefs together and it’s not easy.

I hope that when we are ready to do this, everyone can put everything they can in to make a real di erence.” His Chefs For Heroes event in 2009 raised over £65,000 in one night; with the bar set high, Cyrus knows whatever he does for Big Curry will have a similar impact. Perfect timing; Big Curry aim to raise £14million by 2015 and have plans to extend their spicy events across the entire year. Naturally, we’ll be keeping you posted along the way.