Shabir Hussain, the renowned chef known as the \u201cking of curry\u201d and credited with inventing the \u201changing naan,\u201d has passed away at the age of 56. Hussain established a chain of Indian restaurants in the UK and owned numerous food venues across northern England, the Midlands, and Scotland.<\/p>\n
His restaurant, Akbar\u2019s, announced his death on social media on Wednesday, stating that its establishments would be closed until 5 PM on Friday in his honor. The post expressed deep sadness and asked for prayers for Hussain, wishing him the highest rank in Jannah and peace for his family during this difficult time.<\/p>\n
Hussain opened his first 28-seat restaurant in Bradford in 1995, later expanding to cities such as Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow, and Birmingham. Earlier this year, he launched his latest venue in Blackburn. <\/p>\n
Described as a \u201cpioneer in the Indian food world,\u201d Hussain claimed to have invented the \u201cnaan tree,\u201d a vertical stand designed to hold large naans or Asian flatbreads. Speaking on the CEO Club podcast, he mentioned, \u201cI\u2019m the guy who invented the naan tree \u2013 my biggest regret is I could have patented it \u2026 It\u2019s actually now used everywhere by everybody.\u201d He explained that the design originally served as a \u201cspace-saver\u201d but turned into a popular attraction at his restaurants.<\/p>\n
Fatima Patel, editor of the Asian Standard, characterized Hussain as a \u201cgenerous and soft human being.\u201d In an interview with the BBC, she noted how he transformed the curry industry with innovative presentation techniques that appealed to both the Asian and non-Asian communities. She recalled the \u201cwow factor\u201d of his giant naan presentations that were soon emulated by other restaurants, praising his remarkable vision and entrepreneurial spirit.<\/p>\n
Labour MP Naz Shah expressed her sorrow over his passing, calling it a \u201chuge loss\u201d to both his family and the business world, highlighting his contribution to Bradford\u2019s curry scene and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Shabir Hussain, the renowned chef known as the \u201cking of curry\u201d and credited with inventing the \u201changing naan,\u201d has passed away at the age of 56. Hussain established a chain of Indian restaurants in the UK and owned numerous food venues across northern England, the Midlands, and Scotland. His restaurant, Akbar\u2019s, announced his death on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5415","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-restaurant-news-uk"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5415"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restaurantnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}