Two Michelin star chef Aktar Islam to create menu for Cateys 2025

Two-Michelin-starred chef Aktar Islam has been revealed as the culinary brains behind the Cateys 2025 menu.

The Cateys, held in partnership with Square, return to JW Marriott Grosvenor House London on Monday 7 July to honour and celebrate exceptional talent and pioneering businesses in the hospitality industry.

Guests attending the celebration will enjoy a taste of the Birmingham chef’s cuisine, with a menu he said was inspired by India’s “culinary heritage”.

Speaking to The Caterer, Islam said the menu “will be full of exciting flavours”.

He added: “We’ll be making the most of our seasonal best ingredients that come from our seeds, our land, from our farms. And then we’re combining that with some incredible flavour profiles from south India and north India, and looking at different time periods as well, so not just contemporary India.”

For his “lovely fun” dessert, he said he will use strawberries, which are one of his "favourite summer ingredients”.

Islam said that preparing to cook for around 1,000 guests at the Cateys had been “a learning curve”.

“Cooking at the restaurant with my team, and in my environment, for 50-odd guests, whereas, having to cook for 1,000 covers in a very efficient manner, that’s a completely different way of cooking,” he added.

Cooking alongside Islam at JW Marriott Grosvenor House London will be Patrick O’Sullivan, executive chef at the Park Lane hotel. Islam said O’Sullivan and his team were “incredibly talented at what they do” and will guide him when cooking for the evening’s guests.

Islam, who won last year’s Catey’s Chef Award, is a major force in Birmingham’s growing food scene.

In October 2019, he became the first British-born Bangladeshi chef to win a Michelin star for Opheem, which itself was the first Indian restaurant outside London to win a star in the Great Britain and Ireland guide. In 2024, Opheem became the first restaurant in Birmingham to be awarded two Michelin stars.

After Islam won last year’s Catey’s Chef Award, judge Tom Kerridge praised him for his “outstanding achievement on a culinary level”, while Claude Bosi said Islam was “an absolutely dedicated restaurateur who does so much for his region, as well as running a restaurant leading the way with Indian flavours”.

Purchase your ticket for the Cateys by visiting the Cateys 2025 website or email Sophie Waldron on sophie.waldron@jacobsmediagroup.com. To enquire about sponsoring the event, please contact Cheryl Townsend, sales manager, on 07780 478673.

The Cateys is sponsored by St Ewe Eggs, Sona, Brakes, Miele, Bidfood, Compass, and Unox and Tork, and supported by Matthew Clark, Winterhalter, Quadrant, Montgomery Events, Sky Business and Venners.