The British love affair with Indian food is hotter (excuse the inevitable pun) than ever. When the lovely “Indian Nigella”, Anjum Anand blazed a trail with Indian Food Made Easy she inspired many an Indian dinner party at home. Then there’s celebrity chef Atul Kochhar whose Benares restaurant in London is a modern legend. Now, the young and rather brilliant Aktar Islam is stamping his signature style on Indian cuisine.
Aktar took his Birmingham restaurant Lasan to victory in Gordon Ramsay’s search for the Best Local Restaurant in The F Word last year, and he’s also the only self-trained chef to blow the UK’s most revered Michelin starred chefs out of the water on BBC2′s Great British Menu.
We’re secretly hoping for a cookbook soon, but in the meantime we’ve already drooled over the recipes on his website www.aktarislam.co.uk
Aktar is passionate about creating innovative, contemporary Indian food and there’s definitely space in the kitchen for that. And for those who think Indian food is too difficult, Aktar’s recipe for Tandoori Style Chicken Drumsticks couldn’t be easier www.aktarislam.co.uk/recipes/tandoori-style-chicken-drumsticks Let the chicken soak up the marinade the day before, then just sear the drumsticks for 2 mins and pop into the oven for 20 – delicious and done!
A quick peek at the Lasan Restaurant menu http://www.lasan.co.uk/menu.html
“I’m driven by the desire to create innovative modern dishes that bring together quality local produce with the intricate flavours of the Indian subcontinent” – Aktar Islam
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