For Tommy Miah food happened at an early age of 14 from dishwashing in Birmingham outside London where he got an interest in cooking. He used to work in the restaurant during his weekends and that’s how he developed an interest in cooking. Obviously like we all do, we get the ideas from our parents, our mom, he did the same. By the time he was 17, he had his first fast food business in Birmingham. And, today he has become one of the sought after name in the food fraternity in the world. Read what he has to say:
Tell us something about your journey in the world of food?
Since, I began my first restaurant there was no looking back. I moved to Edinburgh and opened a restaurant in partnership and from there onwards I have expanded into other businesses opening more restaurants, coming up with recipe books of which I have written around 20 of them which is available on Amazon and are quiet popular. One of the books was forward by the UK’S Queen Elizabeth and Duchess of York. I have worked with Princess Anne and she was our guest of honor at the award ceremony in London.
What about other works and association?
We run International Indian Chef of the year Competition running since 1991. Obviously, food is my love and my passion, I have always enjoyed that and wherever there is an opportunity I try to get involved and do my best whatever I can do. Also side by side I run Tommy Miah's Hospitality Management Institute since 2003. So till now roughly 18000 students have been in the academy and they are working all over the world. I am also coming up with Tommy Miah’s Fried Chicken globally and have one outlet in Bangladesh my home country just to do a test market. It’s been four year and now I am ready to expand and open our first outlet in Kolkata. We shall come up with 8-10 outlets by December end. I have also plan to open outlets in Africa, UAE and Malaysia. I have another setup in Malaysia where we have introduced ready to eat Thai, Italian, Malaysian, Chinese, Indonesian paste.
Tell us something about your plan to enter Kolkata and why?
Tommy Miah’s Fried Chicken is combined with my own spices and flavors where we marinate it and not pump it like other brands do. So the chicken is crispy and the spices go in because we use overnight to 24 hours marination. Kolkata has got very similar taste to Dhaka so we wanted to try hand with this market before expanding it to other regions. Also, one needs only Rs 5-6 lakhs to set up this business and it’s only 70 sq. feet which is not huge. Already I have signed a deal with a master franchise here in India. We have a target of 100 outlets in three years all over India.
Which part of your job you enjoy the most?
I enjoy cooking recipe, love developing new recipes, that’s my main idea, my goal.
What are your secret curries that are very popular?
I enjoy lot of the traditional curries. I have been a vegetarian for the past 30 years but I do take fish for protein. One of the dishes called Gosht Hindustani is my signature and another one I created for Bangladeshi’s called Green Chicken prepared in green paste of mint, coriander and all these greens are made into a paste.
What is your favorite flavor or ingredient to play with in kitchen?
Mint, coriander, chilly, lemon, a little bit of sugar to give that sweet and hot flavor. I like to blend my own spices together and blend my own flavor rather than buying in powders.
What advise you would like to give to the young and aspiring chefs?
I will say that whatever you do, do it with your heart and do it with your passion. I think we need more training to the aspiring chefs.
With Inputs From:
Shrishti Rai
