Ali Ahmed Aslam: Chef who claimed to have invented ‘chicken tikka masala’ dies at 77

London

Ali Ahmed Aslam, a Glasgow-based chef, who claimed to be the inventor of ‘chicken tikka masala’ dish, died at the age of 77.

Aslam, who opened the Shish Mahal restaurant in 1964, passed away on Monday, his family announced through social media.

“Mr Ali #shishmahal just passed away this morning we are all absolutely devastated and heartbroken,” Shish Mahal wrote on Twitter.

He claimed to have invented the famous dish ‘chicken tikka masala’ in the 1970s after a customer complained about the dryness of his meat, reports BBC.

Known as “Mr Ali”, he was born in Pakistan but moved with his family to Glasgow, Scotland as a young boy.

Speaking to AFP news agency, Ali had described the moment he came up with one of the most favourite dishes that the Westerners enjoy.

"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'," he recalled.

"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 and 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."

It cannot certainly be proved that he was the original inventor of the dish. His bid to get the dish safeguarded under the Protected Designation of Origin status back in 2009 failed as a number of other establishments around the UK also claimed to have invented the dish.

Had the bid to protect the dish been successful, other restaurants would have had to call the curry "Glasgow Tikka Masala", similar to an Arbroath Smokie or a Melton Mowbray Pork Pie.

(With inputs from agencies)

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