Rising star Reza Mahammad chats to ddmag

You inherited ‘The Starof India’ from your fatherand have managed to make it one of the greatest restaurants our country has ever seen. It no doubt takes sheer dedication and passion to take a restaurant to such a status; has this always been something that you have wanted to do?

The Star of India has beenan established restaurant for over fifty years; it opened in 1954 and was the first Indian restaurant in Kensington. When my father passed away the family was left with the restaurant and as the eldest son I stepped up and took over and alongside my brother I have since been working to ensure its success. Working in the food industry wasn’t initially what I had always wanted to do, I had always had such an interest in Arts but what I soon learnt was that I could incorporate them both together and come up with some fantastic results.

You’ve managed to make Indian cooking fun and exciting for the modern day British public is there a certain way that you think people should attack those dishes they are so afraid to cook themselves and often end up being ordered in a takeaway?

When you prepare Indian food the key is to not be afraid of the spices. When you use whole spices you need to heat the oil and let the spices crackle and what you will notice is that the oil from the spices will immediately start to come out. However when you use powdered spices you need to give it a bit of time and cook it slowly; once you understand how to cook with different spices there really is no need to be afraid of cooking any type of Indian food and with my recipes, particularly in my book, the cooking is simple, do-able and fun.

Your style of cooking is incredible and somewhat unique; where does the inspiration for all your recipes come from?

I find that inspiration can come from all sorts of things but I do get greatly inspired by Middle Eastern food; I love regional styles of foods that are so rich and fiery and that all have their own appeal, I like to incorporate this into my cooking.