A DORSET cook stepped up to the plate in this season of goodwill by feeding around 300 homeless people in Bournemouth.

Sarah Ali Choudhury got up at the crack of dawn to prepare a delicious, homemade curry to give to people in need across the town.

The mum-of-four, who started her own business, Easy Curry, this year, and is a columnist for the Daily Echo’s Taste section, said it felt like “the right thing to do”.

“I’d read in the newspaper that Bournemouth had 300 homeless people, and I thought that was terrible.

“I started my business in August, and I decided I was going to do something good before the end of the year.

“It’s that time of year where everybody’s busy worrying about Christmas - the turkey and the presents. There are loads of people out there who don’t have that so I thought I’d do something nice for them.

“There are loads of people who do this, which is really nice, but I don’t think it’s spoken about widely enough – there are soup kitchens and Christmas dinners provided at the churches.”

Mark, a Big Issue seller, was one of the recipients of Sarah’s curry. He said: “It was a very nice curry, and it’s very appreciated to be thought about.”

Sarah, was born in Bournemouth, is the daughter of Helen and Rafique Choudhury who run the Taj Mahal in Bridport. She cut her catering teeth at the East Street restaurant, and at age 20 she became the youngest Asian person to manage an Indian restaurant.

She had her national TV debut this year on Channel 4 reality show My Kitchen Rules and has been popping up at food festivals and demo kitchens around the county this summer.

Her mission is to make curry cooking simpler. She said she decided to launch Easy Curry after she was invited to cook an Indian dish as part of a project for her children’s school, which led to a collaboration with another mum Anna Cribb who runs Hey Mummy TV.

She said she “really enjoyed” the day giving food to the homeless, but thanked her mum, who helped her prepare the curry, and her dad, who helped take care of her children while she carried out her good deed.

“I’ve felt really good about doing this. I’ve loved it. It wasn’t a stressful thing to do making all this food. I want to help people as much as I can.”