A Darlaston restaurant has enlisted the help of a personal trainer – and a whole team of fitness boot campers - to help get its new healthy options menu into the best possible shape.
Rakesh Kumar, specialist curry chef at Suki’s Bar and Indian Restaurant in Walsall Road, has been working with Walsall fitness guru, Paul Wilson, to offer customers some lighter, low fat curries.
The idea for the new menu came from Suki’s owner Bharat Patel and Mr Wilson, after the restrauteur recently joined Paul’s Fat Burner Boot Camp, to try and increase his fitness.
And realising that he also needs to address what he eats, Mr Patel then turned his attention to the restaurant.
“It can be a little unhealthy, working the kind of hours you do to run a restaurant, eating late, and not always eating the right thing, which is why I called Paul in, first to give me some pointers on my personal fitness, and then we came up with the idea of a new healthy menu for the restaurant.
“I know curry traditionally has the image of swimming in ghee and being pretty calorific, but with all of our dishes at Suki’s, we work hard to make sure they are cooked as healthily as possible, dry cooking when we can – that’s using the tandoor, or clay oven – which keeps fat to a minimum.
“But even so, I wanted to have a menu that was specifically designed to be low fat, which means we use the leanest meat, no fat where possible, and coconut oil when dry cooking is not an option.
“Paul came into our kitchens, looked at how we were doing things, and then sat down with Rakesh our curry chef, to look at how we could make some dishes even healthier.”
Mr Patel invited his fellow boot campers to ‘test drive’ the new menu at the weekend(sat 9), when they had the chance to try out dishes from the new menu, in return for a charitable donation.
The Boot Campers helped raise more than £160 for Mr Wilson’s chosen charity, Walsall Heart Care, which Suki’s have also matched for their chosen good cause, St Giles Walsall Hospice.
“These people, like me, are serious about getting into shape, and that means being serious about what they eat too – I’m delighted we got some really positive feedback about how great the food was,” added Mr Patel.
Paul Wilson, of Fat Burner Boot Camp, has devised his own cook book to help his clients get into shape, and used the same principles, and some of his tips to help Rakesh plan the healthy menu.
“My cookbook has banned and approved foods, and I stuck with these principles when it came to the ingredients for Suki’s menu,” said Paul.
He runs his training schemes, Fat Burner Bootcamps, in the outdoors, over a 28-day period, and guarantees to help people drop a dress or jean size, and up to one stone in weight by training and eating properly.
“Normally, curries would be out for my clients, because of the fat, but now thanks to the new menu, people can enjoy some great food, and still get in shape,” he added.
A spokesperson for St Giles Walsall Hospice said they were delighted that Suki’s had chosen to use its healthy options menu to support the charity.
“We wish them good luck with the launch of their new healthy menu and thank them for all their hard work for St Giles Walsall Hospice,” she said.
“The money raised will go to help local people with cancer and other serious illnesses who can now be cared for in the new in-patient hospice in Walsall.”
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