In 1945, Ali Ahmed Aslam was born in a small town in what is
now Pakistan. Before he was a teenager, Ali’s family moved to Glasgow. His
father opened the Green Gates, Scotland’s first Indian restaurant. In 1964, Ali
opened his own restaurant, the Shish Mahal. Sometime in the 1970’s, a customer complained
about their chicken tikka, saying, “I’d take some sauce with that; this is a
bit dry.” So, Ali whipped up a sauce using canned tomato soup, yogurt, cream,
and garam masala. Chicken tikka masala is about as Indian as chop suey and
fortune cookies are Chinese. But Ali wasn’t cooking for Indians. Having grown
up in Great Britain, he knew exactly how to suit British palates. His recipe
very quickly became Britain’s favorite curry. Ali died in 2022 at the age of
77. He is fondly remembered for his love of Glasgow, for his charity work, and
for his most famous recipe.
No comments:
Post a Comment