Ali Ahmed Aslam, a well-known chef and the creator of the popular curry “Chicken Tikka Masala” in Britain, died at the age of 77. Ali Ahmed Aslam, the creator of Chicken Tikka Masala, passed away on Monday. His Glasgow restaurant, Shish Mahal, shuttered for 48 hours as a gesture of respect. Shish Mahal eatery said in a statement, “Hey, Shish Snobs … Mr. Ali passed away this morning … We are all absolutely devastated and heartbroken.”. The funeral for Ali Ahmed Aslam was held on Tuesday at Glasgow Central Mosque, according to reports in the UK media. The whole public was welcome to attend.
Who was Ali Ahmed Aslam?
For those who do not know, Aslam was born in Pakistan, migrated to Glasgow with his family when he was a small lad, and then opened the Shish Mahal in the city’s west end in 1964. Aslam told the tale of how he invented Chicken Tikka Masala in an interview. In the interview, Aslam disclosed that he came up with the idea for Britain’s favorite curry in the 1970s in response to a customer’s request for a means to make his chicken tikka less dry. As a result, he added a creamy tomato sauce on top of the chicken tikka as a remedy.
He said, “Chicken tikka masala was invented in this restaurant. We used to make chicken tikka, and one day a customer said, ‘I’d take some sauce with that, this is a bit dry. We thought we’d better cook the chicken with some sauce. So from here, we cooked chicken tikka with a sauce that contains yogurt, cream, and spices. It’s a dish prepared according to our customer’s tastes. Usually, they don’t take hot curry – that’s why we cook it with yogurt and cream.”
Notably, Mohammad Sarwar, the then-Labour MP for Glasgow Central, declared in 2009 that the city would be recognized as the birthplace of chicken tikka masala. As several other restaurants in the UK claimed to have created the well-known dish, the former MP Sarwar’s quest to have Glasgow granted EU Protected Designation of Origin designation for the curry was unsuccessful.