The boss of a curry house rocked by a poor food hygiene report says customers can come and inspect the kitchen as he has “nothing to hide”.

Environmental health officers handed Badsha Indian Cuisine in Tenterden zero stars - the worst possible score - following a visit in August last year.

But they have since returned and the award-winning restaurant’s rating has now risen to three stars.

Last year, the inspectors’ found dirty fridges, a couple of rotten vegetables, insects in store rooms and half-smoked cigarettes in food-handling areas.

Owner Abdul Kalam Azad Suton, who has worked in the industry for almost 40 years, told KentOnline he swiftly carried out all of environmental health’s recommendations.

Mr Suton said: “I want people to realise how the Badsha restaurant is running and it’s open for everyone. If you want to visit my kitchen, I have nothing to hide.

“Everything in the kitchen is clear and clean and we will do that for good and maintain it to our highest standard.”

Mr Suton told KentOnline that following the inspectors’ visit to the West Cross venue in August he held a staff meeting and outlined his “zero tolerance” approach to serving “poor food”.

“All the cleaning was done straight away,” he said.

“We then did all the other requirements.

“I’ve been in business for a long time – I care about my customers.

“We have had no complaints in more than 30 years on the health concerns raised, but we need to maintain the good hygiene.”

The initial visit found unlabelled bags of minced meat and staff were unable to identify parts of lamb - but Mr Suton has now labelled everything.

Areas of the kitchen and storage area were also “generally dirty” but now everything has been deep-cleaned.

“It’s all very serious to us,” he said.

“For example, cooked food goes at the top of the fridge and raw food is at the bottom, and I have spoken to all my staff about this.

“Temperatures are always checked and it is basic knowledge for the food handler to know.”

In response to the rotten carrots found during the inspectors’ visit, Mr Suton says he would never have served them to a customer.

“I bought one kilo of carrots and one or two were rotten which I think would obviously happen - every household might expect that,” he said.

“When they’re rotten, they’re thrown away - I would never serve them.”

Mr Suton says he is grateful to the loyal customers who supported him following the shock rating last year.

“My customers are coming back and supporting me so I am pleased about that,” he said.

“I hope this will give customers their answers following the rating.”

Despite the food hygiene score improving following the inspectors’ latest visit, Mr Suton is still not satisfied.

“I’ve already asked them back,” he said.

“I’m not happy with three stars because I believe that I can get to five stars, which is my standard. I have already applied for the council to revisit.

“Having the five-star rating doesn’t matter to me right now. What matters to me is the restaurant being run to a high standard.

“I’m very apologetic to my customers for the last rating but we are ready for them now and I am trying to get my restaurant to be 100% clean and tidy to serve them.

“If customers have any questions they can ask – I have no restrictions. We are obliged to listen and I hope they will visit us.”

In 2021, the curry house was named the best restaurant in Kent at the Euro Asia Curry Awards.

Mr Suton even received a lifetime achievement accolade.