Scottish chef who gave the world Chicken Tikka Masala dies at 77

The chef who claims to have invented the curry dish Chicken Tikka Masala passed away on Monday at the age of 77, reports AFP quoting his nephew Andleeb Ahmed.

Ahmed Aslam Ali from Scotland's Glasgow island invented the dish by improvising a sauce made from a tin of tomato soup at his restaurant Shish Mahal in the 1970s. 

Aslam Ali, a perfectionist and highly driven, would eat lunch in his restaurant every day, said his nephew.

In an interview with AFP in 2009, Ahmed Ali 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'," Aslam 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, and spices."

The dish turned out to be the most popular dish in British restaurants.

Although it is difficult to prove definitively where the dish originated, it is generally regarded as a curry adapted to suit Western tastes.

Aslam Ali said the Chicken Tikka Masala is prepared according to customer taste.

"Usually they don't take hot curry, that's why we cook it with yogurt and cream," he said.

Supporters of the campaign to grant the dish protected status point to the fact that former foreign minister Robin Cook once described it as a crucial part of British culture.

"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.

Ali, 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 said he wanted the dish to be a gift to Glasgow, to give something back to his adopted city.

In 2009, he campaigned unsuccessfully for the dish to be granted "Protected Designation of Origin" status by the European Union, alongside the likes of Champagne, Parma Ham and Greek Feta cheese.

MP Mohammad Sarwar tabled a motion in the House of Commons in 2009 calling for EU protection.

Ali leaves a wife, three sons and two daughters.