A NORTHWICH entrepreneur who has inspired home cooks across the country to explore Bangladeshi cuisine has been named one of the UK's top 100 businesswomen.

Habiba Chowdhury launched Habiba’s School of Spice – formerly My Curry Club – in 2019 and has since won a host of prestigious awards.

Now, she has been recognised in a list of the most inspirational women in business across the UK by Small Business Britain in its f:Entrepreneur #ialso100 campaign.

“I'm beyond delighted to have been recognised and listed as one of the top 100 female business leaders in the UK," said Habiba.

"To be on a list among other inspiring women confirms for me that I have made the right decisions with my business.

"I researched the support businesswomen had in the UK when my business was at infancy stage and to be seen as an inspiring businesswoman was one of my hopes and an important target for my cookery school."

Habiba, whose business is the UK’s only Bangladeshi cookery school, was recognised for her determination to adapt to the pandemic.

Unable to open the school to teach for a third lockdown, she created Habiba’s Curry Night, a popular takeaway service providing some of her unique curries to Cheshire residents.

The success of her new venture gave her the opportunity to hire four talented women to help her grow the business and complement her own skills as a chef and cookery teacher.

Both f:Entrepreneur and Small Business Britain were founded by Michelle Ovens CBE, who is also the director of Small Business Saturday UK.

Congratulating the women making the #ialso100 list, she said: "Despite the significant obstacles thrown at them in the last year, female entrepreneurship continues to grow and flourish.

"We need to continue, and increase, our support for these incredible women and celebrate their amazing strength and success in the face of huge challenges.

"We have seen so many women embracing change, generating and exploring new ideas, rallying around their communities and supporting their peers.

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"This resilience is hugely valuable and will set them up for success as they will be at the very heart of the UK’s recovery."

Habiba added: "Thank you to Michelle Ovens for seeing the full potential in me as Habiba's School of Spice."

Last year, Habiba also picked up the Sole to Sole award in The Small Awards 2020 while also collaborating with the internationally-renowned Global Knives company.