THERE'S nothing more guaranteed to make my day than news that someone who once featured in these columns is not only enjoying continued success, but is now branching out.

That's never more true than in the case of Steven Higginson and Carly Jones, the young entrepreneurs behind Starly's Spices - the packet-sized solution for a perfect curry.

The couple have opened Starly's at Staveley, a 22-cover bistro specialising in Indian food. They are only open Wednesday through to Saturday evenings at the moment but have had full houses on nearly every occasion.

Steven is responsible for the freshly-prepared curries, Carly looks after front of house. It's not quite what the couple had in mind but these two are nothing if not adaptable - not to mention extremely hard-working - and I would hazard a guess that is the key to their popularity.

Having outgrown their tiny production unit in the garden of their Orton home, the plan had been to move house to Staveley and open a deli-cum-cafe. In stepped Staveley Mill Yard boss David Brockbank who set them up with both with a roof over their heads and found the ideal spot for their shop and eatery on the main street, next to Spar.

(He may have had a vested interest ... to date Mr B has been one of Starly's best customers!) But as the pair got busy painting and decorating, people kept sticking their heads around the door asking the same question ... "will you be open in the evening".

Fact is, Steven and Carly couldn't possibly keep up supplying their spice range and rubs to more than 500 shops nationwide (including Booths and Harvey Nicholls), as well as run a cafe during the day, cum bistro at night.

And so they opted to ditch the notion of daytime service in favour of opening a few nights a week - and making the bistro available for private parties.

During the day the kitchen is their base for spice blend production, and then late afternoon Steven dons his pinny and starts to prepare the curries. The menu changes every couple of weeks but there is always a chicken variety, red meat too.

For the vegetarian option, however, Starly's has enlisted that master of the no-meat heat treat, Kaushik Mistry, of Sandside-based Made by Masi.

From 5pm onwards, Starly's Indian food is available for takeaway (15 per dent discount), and then from 6pm onwards, it's table bookings only, and bring your own drinks (£2.50 per head corkage).

The menu is purposely small and perfectly formed, enabling Steve to cook everything from scratch using chicken from Haytons butchers across the road, perhaps, or Herdwick sourced for Starly's by ready-meal experts The Cumbrian Way at Langdale. There's beef from Gaisgill too. The recipes are Steve's own and cooking them is second nature.

The puds, however, are Carly's - a lemon cheesecake, or maybe a chocolate tartfullo.

It's still early days but bouyed by their success thus far Steven says Starly's at Staveley is just the beginning.

"This is our blueprint for the future," he promised.

The world's hottest curry just got hotter!

For next week's National Curry Week celebrations, Starly's at Staveley is offering people a chance to try Satan's Ashes which has been produced in conjunction with Ged and Diane Fowler of the Chilli Pepper Company at Cark.

The infamous spice blend previously used the bhut jolokia which is officially the world's hottest chilli. Now the team at Warwick University has measured the heat of an even hotter chilli from the naga morich family for Satan's Ashes.

Trouble is, it's heat is so lethal that Steve has to don protection when he prepares the curry. And anyone requesting it during National Curry Week - pre-ordering required - will have to sign a disclaimer. Starly's is offering Gazette readers a 10 per cent discount for curry week - just mention the newspaper when you ring to book your table. Tel: 01539-821807 or 07734-660157.