This most exotic dish is running around the world since the 1960s. It has a lot of controversial history like a Bollywood star, But that’s not at all in the part of our business. Let’s focus on chicken tikka masala.
It started in 1960 in Great Britain. By the time most Indian restaurants were owned by Bangladeshi chefs. Once a British came to have food at an Indian restaurant and he ordered Chicken Tikka. The conversation was: “Excuse me, mister” says the man to the chef. “This chicken tikka is a bit dry, can you please bring something else, something better than this.” He wants to please his customer, the chef returns to the kitchen. Looking around he spies, a can of tomato soup and has either a light bulb moment or a moment of desperation. His mind was a little skeptical but his heart wanted to try or make something new but good.
He warms the soup, throws in some spices and a dash of yogurt and cream pours it over the chicken. He presents the dish to his customer, the chef’s most sudden try that was but then the customer and the chef were thrilled with the result, returning again and again for what is now one of the UK’s most popular dishes, Chicken Tikka Masala. This is the most known story we have so far regarding Chicken Tikka Masala.
There is another amusing version of the story which is not really known but in the context that is Chicken Tikka Masala born in Scotland yet not backed by any actual proof that’s the exact reason why we called it amusing - is that CTM originated in a restaurant in Scotland. Pakistani chef Ali Ahmed Aslam, owner of the Shish Mahal restaurant in the west end of Glasgow, once said to a UK newspaper, The Telegraph that he invented it by improvising a sauce for a demanding customer "We used to make chicken tikka and one day a customer said 'I'd take some sauce with that, this is a bit dry' so we cooked chicken tikka with the sauce which contains yogurt, cream, spices". The legend is that the base of the sauce was actually a tin of condensed tomato soup. Are you getting it? Same story with a dash of flavor.
In an article published in Menu Magazine in 2016, Peter and Colleen Grove, experts research on the history of ethnic food, examined different claims to the creation of the Chicken Tikka Masala, concluding that “the mystery will have to remain” to keep the charm in it rather keep the mystery in the box as no chef has ever been able to provide “any evidence or witness support”. Well, the story goes something like this everyone revealed their version but this is proved that chicken tikka masala is not completely our, also yeah we Indians have the best contribution but the truth is the truth. Basically this is Indian, Bangladeshi or British that doesn't matter for us the thing is We all are so much connected with food, as we all know “Nothings can bring people together like a good food”.
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