UB40 backs campaign to protect Birmingham's Balti

UB40's founding guitarist Robin Campbell is backing a campaign to protect the Birmingham balti.

The city's speciality curry, which takes its name from the metal dish used to make it, is being considered under a Unesco-backed scheme in a bid to give it protected status and safeguard the authentic cooking traditions used to make it.

Restaurants across the city's so-called Balti Triangle are behind the campaign, including Shababs, where Campbell and his manager son Matt said they had long been fans of baltis and tucked into one of the dishes.

"It's a Brummie thing... we should be shouting about it because it's a fine tradition," Campbell said.

Campbell, who grew up in Balsall Heath, said he visited the triangle "as a treat" when he was a kid, and that the band had "long been fans" of the city's curry.

He described Birmingham as a "cultural melting pot," adding: "It's the reason we are who we are."

Zaf Hussain, chef and owner of Shababs on Ladypool Road, said restaurants across England had wanted to "jump on the balti bandwagon" in the late 80s and early 90s, but they had not been making them correctly.

"Proper Birmingham balti is [in] a thin pressed carbon steel dish.

"It's cooked in the same dish, served in the same dish and eaten out of the same dish," he said.

Andy Munro, director of the Unesco bid, claimed the amount of iron in one of the city's balti dishes was equivalent to 15 pints of Guinness and described the caramelisation that resulted from how it was cooked as "a slightly sweet flavour to die for".

He added that he was "fairly confident" the speciality curry style would secure Unesco recognition.

"It will be the first multicultural dish to get that status, which will be brilliant," he added.

Baltis would join other foods, like Kimchi, Cornish pasties and French baguettes, that have already been given special status protecting either where they are from or how they are made.

Campbell and his son tried the new Birmingham Alabama Balti at Shababs, made from fried chicken, butter beans and peanut butter, staples of the US city, blended with traditional balti sauce.

Hussain said he had created the dish, alongside Munro, to mark International Day of Birmingham, which celebrates cities around the world that share the same name.

Celebrations have been hosted since 2024 after being championed by Brummie comedian Joe Lycett as part of a TV series that explored Birmingham's cultural links.

This year's event will take place across the city on 24 and 25 September.

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