What's All the Brouhaha Over Chicken Tikka Masala, the Dish Tom Cruise Ordered

Even before the hubbub over the &lsquopanta bhaat&rsquo had settled, the culinary world got excited once more, this time over chicken tikka masala.

Filming in the English city of Birmingham for his upcoming movie Mission Impossible 7, Hollywood actor and producer Tom Cruise visited Asha&rsquos, the Indian restaurant owned by the famous playback singer Asha Bhosle.

Soon after, the internet was flooded with the news that the Top Gun actor not only ordered chicken tikka masala or CTM as it is popularly called, he even asked for a second portion of the dish with some &lsquoextra&rsquo spice in it.

Media reports quoting Asha&rsquos general manager Nouman Farooqui said that the actor arrived with five others and a security detail, and insisted that the restaurant should treat them like other customers, and even took up a table in the middle of the restaurant.

Cruise and his team ordered salmon, chicken tikka kebab, saag paneer, mint cauliflower and chicken tikka masala. And then to the delight of the restaurant, Cruise ordered a second portion of the chicken tikka masala.

But did you know the jury is still out about the origin of the CTM According to Britannica.com, &lsquoSome believe that it [chicken tikka masala] was invented in the 1970s by a Bangladeshi chef in Glasgow, Scotland, who, in order to please a customer, added a mild tomato-cream sauce to his chicken tikka. More likely, it derived from butter chicken, a popular dish in northern India.&rsquo But the story has not been established beyond doubt however, most agree that the origin is rooted in improvisation.

Although found on the menu of almost every Indian (or South Asian for that matter) restaurant in the UK for decades, the CTM shot to global fame in 2001 when, according to media reports, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook called chicken tikka masala &ldquoa true British national dish,&rdquo a symbol of the country&rsquos multicultural aspect. It shocked critics undoubtedly, putting the CTM above the typical Brit dishes such as the fish and chips but it was impossible to deny the popularity of the dish.

Organisers of the National Curry Week (founded in 1998 by the late journalist Peter Grove who loved the &lsquocurry&rsquo) once estimated that if all the portions of chicken tikka masala consumed annually in the United Kingdom were stacked on top of one another, they would form a tower 2770 times taller than the Greenwich Millenium Dome.

With no established recipes, each restaurant has its own way of making the chicken tikka masala, which essentially consists of small pieces of chargrilled chicken marinated in spices and then cooked in a curd-based spicy gravy. It may be garnished with onions or coriander leaves. It is usually eaten with rice or Indian bread.

The day after Cruise&rsquos visit, the film&rsquos crew too dropped by the restaurant.

So if you are visiting the UK anytime soon, do not forget to pay a visit to Asha&rsquos in Birmingham to find out the secret of their &lsquospecial&rsquo chicken tikka masala which got Ethan Hunt (the role essayed by Cruise as part of Impossible Missions Force) enamoured.

In 2007, the Birmingham outlet of Asha&rsquos was the brand&rsquos first restaurant to be opened outside of Kuwait and Dubai. Now Asha&rsquos has three outlets in the UK alone, with one at Manchester and the other at Solihull.

According to the restaurant, the menus reflect the singer&rsquos personal journey from a childhood spent on the road with her father&rsquos travelling theatre-company to her own journeys across the globe as an entertainer.  The restaurant specialises in dishes from the North-Western frontiers of India with &lsquoauthentic preparations and cooking methods intertwined with modern influences and artisanal accents&rsquo.

According to Michelin Guide&rsquos Point of View, it is &lsquoa stylish, passionately run Indian restaurant with exotic d&eacutecor owned by renowned artiste/gourmet Asha Bhosle. Extensive menus cover most parts of the Subcontinent, with everything cooked to order. Tandoori kebabs are a speciality.&rsquo

By the way, this was not the Birmingham outlet&rsquos first brush with a leader from the entertainment industry. It has also attracted the likes of Ed Sheeran, Priyanka Chopra, Heston Blumenthal and the Rolling Stones, according to reports.