Indian chef and entrepreneur Muntakim Ali is seeing demand soar after launching a business teaching others how to cook authentic Indian food in their own homes.
The 47 year old restauranteur came to the UK at the age of 16 and learned to cook by working in Welsh Indian restaurants. As his business and catering skills grew, Muntakim launched two of his own restaurants (Masala in both Swansea and Llanelli), and later K&J Spice House Indian takeaway – but as he worked with clients he found a new passion developing – sharing his skills, and teaching others to cook.
Muntakim naturally found himself being asked by customers for tips and advice on the dishes they cooked at home, so decided it was time to venture into the Indian Cookery School market – and his feet have barely touched the ground since!
Here, he shows a Welsh reporter how to make an authentic Chicken Tikka Masala:
Muntakim explains:
“People love the food at my restaurants and take away, but would tell me they didn’t eat out as often as they would like to because it was expensive to eat out in general. As I got to know regulars, they would say things like ‘I tried to make that – but my recipe doesn’t taste like yours, what spices do you put in that’?”
“I was always happy to share tips, and they would tell me how they got on, so I thought the Cookery Classes would be a great way to share my passion for food, I created the classes with these people in mind, but they’ve referred me to other people and it’s really grown from there, the phone keeps ringing now!”
Now Muntakim is often fully booked for private lessons at £25 an hour and says he loves the new business.
“I absolutely love our style of cooking, and it’s really popular in Wales, but most of the cookbooks you can buy just don’t cook like Indian chefs – it’s all about getting the blend of spices right and knowing when to add them. It’s nice to teach one on one, as well, I feel by the time I’ve left, people haven’t just learned new cooking skills, they’ve picked up a passion for herbs and spices, for a particular way of cooking- and many of them go on to create their own dishes as well as just reproducing the ones I’ve taught them.”
If you’d like to learn more or to book a cookery lesson please call 07768179507.