Aktar Islam - Chasing 3 Michelin Stars, How Gordon Ramsay Saved My Career & The Problem With Curry Houses
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How did Gordon Ramsay’s advice change Aktar Islam’s career trajectory?
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the GoTo Food Podcast brought to you by Blink, the greatest POS system in the world. And today we're joined by a chef who's one of the most important and influential chefs in Britain. After making his neighbour Lassan, which is a restaurant I actually revisited and loved, um and winning both the F well, when you were saw there, and winning both the F-word and Great British Menu, he went on to open a theme in Birmingham, which I've also been too bad. I'm showing off now. Which became the first restaurant in the city ever to receive two mission stars. Of only two Indian restaurants in the country. Um now he's finally arrived in London with Ud seventeen seventeen twenty two.
Lots of numbers today. His hugely anticipated celebration of the royal Advari cooking traditions of Lutnow is a brilliant actor, and how are you, sir?
Wonderful. Thank you very much for the first time. Yeah, it was a nice intro, wasn't it? Could have been no no, I think you nailed it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well we should say we have sat in your cocktail library in the attic or the top floor of this incredible building. I mean it's one of the most beautiful restaurants I've ever seen. It's a beautiful thing. It's sexy as hell. I mean every room you go into is a different journey, which we'll get into. But before we talk about the food, incredible cocktails have arrived. Can you take us through what
Oh yeah? Yeah, so this what you've got there is like one of my favourite things to drink here in and we've got a great cocktail selection. I think, you know, curated like dr drinks drinks, you know, we always think about restaurants and we often think about food straight away, but I think the beverage side is just as important. So what we've got here is our mango chutney margarita, and I think it's it's becoming a thing. Everyone who has it normally has another one and
jump into it.
And when when they're not here, then they think about it. I I think it's delicious. It's gorgeous. It is delicious.
That is fucking amazing. So obviously a la carte, but you can also go taste the menu here, which we're gonna really dive into properly. We say feasting as opposed to feasting, yeah. I know we say feasting. I'm sorry. And I'll explain why. Okay, go on then please.
Well the the reason why cause what this whole restaurant is um based on the eating experience of the nawabs, right? So that's what we're r uh are trying to celebrate here. And uh a Nawabi Banquet was tasting menu, essentially. There was courses, there was stages that you w go through, like we understand in tasting menus now. And so what we do here is exactly the same thing. So we've got the a la carte side of things, but we do the feasting menu where we actually follow that through. So, you know, we start off with the Shorval, which is a the the soup, you know, soup course is an i you know, the opening course for uh the the banquet and then you work your way through into more and more intense, more inten you know, through the the grilled meats all the way through to the biryanis and the cormas and finishing off with something sweet.
Mm. But everything was decadent, you know, lots of saffron, lots of gold, lots of aromatics. But it was a journey and that's what we do here. And but one of the most important things was like it was a journey, but it was a joint journey that you the whole table sort of appreciated together. Together. So that's why instead of tasting when you would say feasting, because everything's landed on the table and you dig in together and the that whole uh connection between sharing a meal, breaking bread as we say, you know, that's there and that's an essential part of the experience. That's right.
If you are going a la carte Here. Yeah. Give us a couple of dishes we need to. Ah. Mate, you gotta start off with it. I know we said the feasting menu of the shore. You gotta have the soup. Yeah. Right. So we do two different variations. We do the lamb one, the lamb shovra, and we do one with mushroom. Um Um so you gotta have one or the other.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How did Gordon Ramsay’s advice change Aktar Islam’s career trajectory?
0:04–6:38
2
What is the concept behind Opheem’s “feasting” menu and how does it differ from a traditional tasting menu?
6:38–15:01
3
Why does Aktar describe Opheem as running at cost and what does that reveal about restaurant economics?
15:01–21:35
4
How does the UK tax and VAT system impact independent hospitality businesses like Opheem?
21:35–29:40
5
What are Aktar’s criticisms of traditional British curry houses and how does he propose the industry should evolve?
29:40–37:37
6
What does earning the first and second Michelin stars mean for Opheem and for Aktar personally?
37:37–46:13
7
What are Aktar’s future ambitions – the third Michelin star and expanding Indian culinary narratives?
46:13–53:56
8
What dish does Aktar consider his signature three‑course meal and why does it matter to him?
53:56–59:42
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from The Go To Food Podcast
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