The self-described creator of the chicken tikka masala dish, Glasgow-based chef Ali Ahmed Aslam, passed away at the age of 77.
Aslam, who founded the Shish Mahal eatery in 1964, passed suddenly on Monday, according to a post made by his family on social media.
Shish Mahal posted on Twitter, ‘Mr. Ali #shishmahal just passed away this morning. We are all totally devastated and grieved.’
He is credited with creating the well-known dish in the 1970s in response to a customer’s complaint over the dryness of his meat.
The 77-year-old chef, also known as ‘Mr. Ali,’ was born in Pakistan but immigrated to Glasgow as a young child with his family.
Speaking to AFP news agency earlier, Ali had described the moment he came up with one of most favourite dishes 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, 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.’
Though it cannot certainly be proved that he was the original inventor of the dish, but 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.
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