In a sad development, a well-renowned chef and inventor of Britain's favourite curry 'Chicken Tikka Masala'- Ali Ahmed Aslam passed away at the age of 77. The Chicken Tikka Masala inventor Ali Ahmed Aslam's death was announced on Monday by his Shish Mahal restaurant in Glasgow, which was closed for 48 hours as a mark of respect. In its announcement, Shish Mahal restaurant stated, "Hey, Shish Snobs … Mr Ali passed away this morning … We are all absolutely devastated and heartbroken.". As per UK media reports, Ali Ahmed Aslam's funeral was held at Glasgow Central Mosque on Tuesday. Members of the public were invited to attend. Now, those who are wondering who was Ali Ahmed Aslam and how did he invent world famous Chicken Tikka Masala can read below-
Who was Ali Ahmed Aslam?
For the unversed, Aslam was born in Pakistan and moved with his family to Glasgow as a young boy before opening Shish Mahal in Glasgow’s west end in 1964. He was married and has five children. In one of his old interviews, Aslam shared the story of how he invested Chicken Tikka Masala. In the interview, Aslam revealed that he invented Britain's favourite curry in the 1970s when a customer asked if there was a way of making his chicken tikka less dry and therefore as a solution he had added a creamy tomato sauce over it. 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 yoghurt, cream, spices. It’s a dish prepared according to our customer’s taste. Usually, they don’t take hot curry – that’s why we cook it with yoghurt and cream."
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Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un (Verily we belong to Allah, and truly to Him shall we return)
— SHISH MAHAL (@SHISHMAHAL1) December 20, 2022
Rest In Peace Mr Ali#shishmahal #ripmrali #mrali pic.twitter.com/CohtpVQEiM
Notably, in 2009, the then Labour MP for Glasgow Central, Mohammad Sarwar announced that the city would be officially recognised as the home of the chicken tikka masala. The former MP Sarwar had campaigned for Glasgow to be given EU Protected Designation of Origin status for the curry but was unsuccessful as many other eateries in the UK claimed to invent the popular dish.