Opinion Ali Ahmed Aslam and the story of Chicken Tikka Masala in the UK

It is said that on a cold, wet Glaswegian evening, sometime in the 1970s, a customer at a local Indian restaurant called the Shish Mahal, sent back his order of chicken tikka, finding it too dry for his taste, and asked for it to be served with some gravy. The restaurant’s owner, Ali Ahmed Aslam, added yoghurt, cream and some spices to the chicken and the chicken tikka masala, or CTM as it is fondly called, was born. Aslam died this week in Glasgow at the age of 77.

While the Pakistan-born Aslam is widely recognised as the CTM’s creator, other curry shops and restaurants in the UK have also staked their claim on its origins. Some, like Chef Anjum Anand, have traced it to the butter chicken that is believed to have been invented at the Moti Mahal in Delhi in the 1950s; the similarities in the two origin stories — addition of cream, yoghurt or tomatoes and garam masala to dry cooked chicken — are indeed hard to overlook.

Advertisement

But the origins of the CTM, whether in the UK or India, are the least interesting part of its story. In 2001, the UK’s former foreign minister, Robin Cook, described CTM as “a true British national dish” and upheld it as a successful example of the nation’s multiculturalism. And that is exactly what’s so remarkable about the success of CTM. Other contenders for the position of Britain’ national dish have come up since Cook’s famous speech, but CTM’s appeal remains both wide and enduring. From families looking for a quick, cheap meal at the local greasy spoon to hungover stag and hen parties indulging their morning-after munchies, Britons cutting across generations and class have found comfort in the rich textures and mild flavours of chicken tikka masala — a dish of indisputable South Asian lineage, never mind the details.