‘Inventor’ of Chicken Tikka Masala dies

‘Inventor’ of Chicken Tikka Masala dies

Chicken Tikka Masala is a popular dish in Okhla as every day hundreds and thousands of food lovers relish the delicacy in local eateries of Jamia Nagar. However, many among them have no idea about the inventor of this finger licking dish until news surfaced about the death of Ali Ahmed Aslam.

According to several international publications, the dish was introduced in the UK by Aslam in 1970s and since then it travelled across the world and came to Okhla also.

Aslam, a Glaswegian chef, was 77 years old.

His death was announced by his Shish Mahal restaurant in Glasgow which closed for 48 hours as a mark of respect, reported BBC. The eatery announced: “Hey, Shish Snobs … Mr Ali passed away this morning … We are all absolutely devastated and heartbroken.”

In an interview with the AFP news agency, Aslam has once 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 the sauce that contains yogurt, 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 yogurt and cream.”

The dish went on to become the most popular dish in British restaurants. However, it is still difficult to say for sure where the dish originated.

Aslam leaves a wife, three sons and two daughters.