Ali Ahmed Aslam death: Chicken tikka masala ‘inventor’ dies at age 77

Ali Ahmed Aslam, the chef who is said to have come up with the recipe for the ubiquitous chicken tikka masala, has died at the age of 77.

The news was announced by the chef’s Shish Mahal restaurant in Glasgow earlier this week.

“Hey, Shish Snobs... Mr Ali passed away this morning... We are all absolutely devastated and heartbroken,” it said.

Aslam’s funeral was held at Glasgow Central Mosque on Tuesday (20 December). The cause of his death hasn’t been revealed.

The late chef’s nephew Andleeb Ahmed told AFP that “he would eat lunch in his restaurant every day”.

“The restaurant was his life. The chefs would make curry for him. I am not sure if he often ate chicken tikka masala,” Ahmed added.

In a 2009 interview, 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 a sauce that contains yogurt, cream, and spices.”

Soon after, the dish became a popular item in many British restaurants.

Aslam was born in Pakistan and moved to Glasgow as a young boy before opening Shish Mahal in the city’s west end in 1964.

In 2009, the Labour MP for Glasgow Central, Mohammad Sarwar, called for the city to be officially recognised as the home of the chicken tikka masala.

He also campaigned for Glasgow to be given EU Protected Designation of Origin status for the curry.

But he was unsuccesful as many other estabilishments also claimed to have invented the dish.

While the exact origin of the dish is not known, chefs from south Asia have been responsible for introducing the region’s several cuisines into the UK.