A chef from Glasgow, who claims to have invented the curry dish chicken tikka masala, has died at the age of 77.
Ahmed Aslam Ali, who invented the dish by improvising a sauce made from a tin of tomato soup at his restaurant Shish Mahal in the 1970s, died on Monday morning, his nephew Andleeb Ahmed said, reports AFP.
"He would eat lunch in his restaurant every day," Ahmed said.
In an interview with AFP in 2009, Ahmed Aslam said he came up with the recipe for chicken tikka masala after a customer complained that his chicken tikka was too dry.
"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'," Ali said.
"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."
The dish went on to become the most popular dish in British restaurants.
He said the chicken tikka masala is prepared according to customer taste.
"Chicken tikka masala is now a true British national dish, not only because it is the most popular, but because it is a perfect illustration of the way Britain absorbs and adapts external influences," Cook said in a 2001 speech on British identity.
Ahmed Aslam, originally from Punjab province in Pakistan, moved with his family to Glasgow as a young boy before opening Shish Mahal in Glasgow's west end in 1964.
He leaves a wife, three sons and two daughters.
Bd-pratidin English/Golam Rosul
