The celebrated chef has recently opened a new restaurant in Kent
Dev Biswal runs The Cook’s Tale and Café Marrakech in Canterbury(Image: The Cook’s Tale)
An esteemed Kent restaurateur has been named National Chef of the Year at a prestigious awards ceremony after launching a brand new restaurant. Dev Biswal was honoured with the impressive accolade at the 10th Asian Food and Restaurant Awards (AFRA) held at the Dilly Hotel in London just before Christmas.
This was not the only win for Dev, as his highly-acclaimed Canterbury restaurant The Cook’s Tale won the accolade for Culinary Tourism in recognition of his in-bound and international gastronomic food tours. Dev grew up in Orissa in India, was educated in Calcutta and trained at the Dubai Sheraton, before moving to London at the age of 26 in 2003.
He became a partner in The Indian Princess in Margate in December 2006, then patron in 2010, and was also a resident chef on Channel 4’s Superscrimpers, where he demonstrated how to craft gourmet dishes on a budget. During his career, the leading chef has picked up numerous other accolades including ‘Best Restaurant’ at the Taste of Kent Awards; ‘Best Indian Restaurant’ by Morrisons magazine; ‘Best Restaurant in the Southeast’ by the Cobra Good Curry Guide, Asian Chef of the Year at the Asian Restaurant Awards, and Best Asian Chef – Outside London at the Asian Oriental and Chef Awards, to name but a few.
Reacting to the newest wins, Dev said: “I’m indebted to my dedicated and hard-working team for consistently producing dishes of such high quality, our local farmers for their excellent produce and I am grateful to the loyal clientele who continue to nominate us for these awards. This tourism award should help us boost numbers of gastro tourists coming to east Kent in 2026 for our ‘culinary pilgrimages’, taking in the local area’s beautiful countryside.”
Attul Haq, AFRA’s CEO, said: “The British-Asian food and hospitality industry plays a significant role in the UK economy and contributes greatly to the country’s cultural and economic growth. These awards highlight the contribution of the people and brands that are driving Britain’s food industry forward.”
It has been a busy few months for Dev and his team as the chef launched his newest venture in Kent at the end of 2025, Café Marrakech, an establishment dishing up authentic Moroccan and Indian cuisine. Found just a stone’s throw away from The Cook’s Tale, the restaurant in Canterbury’s Rosemary Lane took over the former Cardinal’s Cap pub, previously The Limes Bar.
It welcomed its first customers at the start of November, offering dishes such as slow-cooked tagines, charcoal-grilled meats, hand-rolled couscous, refreshing salads, flaky pastries, freshly baked khobz, and sweet delights like semolina basbousa. See what KentLive made of Café Marrakech when we tried it for ourselves here.
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