Aktar Islam started cooking the age of 13 at his father’s restaurant in Birmingham, and his widely acclaimed flagship Opheem is the highest-ranked Indian venue in the Harden’s 100 list. We caught up with him ahead of his London debut with Oudh 1722, which launches on 1st May next door to Borough Market.
Hardens: Aktar, many congratulations on the new restaurant, which so many diners are looking forward to visiting. Opheem has been acclaimed for a long time, as was Lasan before it, also in Birmingham. You must have had offers to open in London over the years, so why now? And why Borough and not Mayfair, say, or Shoreditch?
Yes, I have had plenty of opportunities in London in the last 20 years. London has always been in my mind – in fact Opheem was originally going to be in London.
But I tend to work with my gut. Ultimately, if I see an opportunity I like – somewhere I want to bring to life – I go with it. Of course it is always a matter of timing, other people meeting obligations and so on.
As to the particular location, I’m never too bothered about that. When I opened Opheem the site was derelict. We have now taken over several units in the street, and rejuvenated that whole part of the Jewellery Quarter.
And with Oudh, there’s already lot of local activity around Borough Market and its surroundings. For me it’s also very convenient. The railway when it works is great: Opheem is 7 minutes from New Street station, and I can get from Euston to Oudh in 20 minutes, which means I can share my responsibilities between the two places. At the moment I’m planning to spend the early part of each week at Oudh.
The full name of the new restaurant is Oudh 1722: why the date? Â
That was when the Nawabs of Lucknow gained independence from the Moghul empire, which ushered in a period of flourishing for Lucknow culture, poetry and cuisine, that lasted until the Nawabs moved to Calcutta. The restaurant celebrates this era of collaboration and cultural thriving.
You are known for your modern take on Indian cuisine, so this looks like a change in direction for you.
Well, I’m not a one-trick pony in my career. Indian cuisine has many different focuses; I can diversify and show another side of my personality with Oudh.
We’ve recruited a new team from scratch, and the senior management have been working for six months at Opheem, learning my culture and philosophy. We’re opening with a small menu that we will be developing and enlarging as the project stabilises.
And you have another restaurant opening soon, Kush in Bristol. What will that be like?
Yes, Bristol is coming in the next few weeks. It’s a very different space, not built around me or my style as such. It’ll be a traditional Indian restaurant, but with a lighter and fresher approach.
Most of the best-known Indian chefs working in the UK were born in India and trained there in classical kitchens. You were born and brought up in Birmingham, so that gives you a different perspective.
Borders – and where you happened to be born – shouldn’t stop you from cooking what you like. Nobody emerges from the womb an astrophysicist!
But there’s a lot of ego and prejudice around. There have been videos with people from India saying it is ‘interesting’ that this non-Indian guy is cooking Indian food. I have been doing what I have been doing since I started out in 2000, before some of these people were born or when they were children.
My style, my progressive approach to Indian cuisine, has always been the same – I’ve been doing it for 26 years now. I find it quite bizarre that there are people who still have that narrow-minded attitude, and feel that food and culture are something you can’t adapt.
I have set out my stall and I’ve been ahead of the curve, setting trends that others have copied. That has been acknowledged for a long time. Chefs like Hrishikesh [Desai, formerly of the Gilpin and now Farlam Hall in Cumbria] were inspired by me; Hrishikesh came on a sort of pilgrimage to Lasan.
In my view, future British chefs should be able to champion any cuisine they want to. You do it for yourself and your own art, always moving forward. I look at food as an open book: I look at all borders as open, I look at cultures as open, as something we should be able to share.
Which chefs have inspired you in your career?
You get inspired by people’s energy, and I’m always thankful to Gordon for giving me a platform [Aktar was crowned champion of Gordon Ramsay’s The F Word on Channel 4 in 2009].
I am blessed to have some of the best chefs as friends. If I was to name names the list would be very long – and I don’t want to offend anyone by missing them out!
As chefs, we’re a very close community, quite tight-knit. The industry has changed for the better over the course of my career. It used to be more isolationist, with everyone out for themselves. So it has been great to witness and be part of this evolution.
Hospitality is a beautiful space to be in now. We all know it has real financial difficulties because of the policies of successive governments. But as an industry – as a group of people – we have never been in a better place, so supportive and with a real sense of togetherness.
- Oudh 1722 is at 66 Union St, London SE1 1TD
