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Glaswegian chef, Ali Ahmed Aslam - the man credited with inventing chicken tikka masala, has died at the age of 77.聽

Ali Ahmed Aslam is said to have come up with the dish in the 1970s when a customer asked if there was a way of making his chicken tikka less dry.

His solution was to add a creamy tomato sauce, in some versions of the story a can of tomato soup.

His death was announced by his Shish Mahal restaurant which closed for 48 hours as a mark of respect.

Known to friends and customers as "Mr Ali" he was born in Pakistan but moved with his family to Glasgow as a young boy before opening Shish Mahal in Glasgow's west end in 1964.

Nisha Katona, founder and CEO of Mowgli Street Foods, and a self-declared "curry evangelist", spoke to Newshour about "gracious" Mr Ali and the "phenomenon" he created:

"It just gently encouraged the western palettes towards Indian spicing's... and as a result chicken tikka masala became the number one dish of Britain...

In my view that small act paved the way to Britain becoming one of the most open minded nations when it comes to the way the world eats."

(Photo: Ahmed Aslam Ali, the owner of the Shish Mahal restaurant in Glasgow, is pictured with a plate of Chicken Tikka Masala in his restaurant, on July 29, 2009. Credit Andy Buchanan/AFP via Getty Images)

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