Food Review: A rib-busting festive feast from Aktar At Home
Rather than sit back and hope for the best during various lockdowns, Aktar Islam did what he does best, as Andy Richardson discovers.
We left it late to find the year’s best dinner. But when it mattered most, Aktar Islam’s brilliant home delivery service was the gift that just kept giving.
On the biggest day of the year, the magnificent Michelin-starred chef delivered as though his life depended on it. Magnificent food, prepared with skill featuring harmonious ingredients, it was a spellbinding performance from the Second City’s most exciting chef.
Covid continues to torment the hospitality industry. So does Brexit, though that’s escaped the awful headlines that would inevitably have followed our exit from the EU because the effects of the pandemic have been so dire.
There’s a shortage of staff with restaurants having to pay absurdly high salaries simply to retain staff.
Front of house jobs, so highly prized in France, Spain and Italy, are frequently looked down upon in the UK as so many fail to identify the opportunities that careers in hospitality can bring.
Prices have spiralled and hospitality has been hit by the hammer blow that is instability as lockdowns and restrictions have played havoc.
Necessity is the mother of invention, of course, and the best have found a way through the madness.
Step forward Aktar Islam. When lockdown struck, Aktar did what he does best – cooked.
Rather than sit back and hope for the best, he created Aktar at Home, the nation’s best delivery service of exceptional curry.
Using the best possible produce, he created a revolving menu that gave buyers the chance to sample an extensive menu.
Sensibly priced and generously proportioned, he somehow found a way to deliver food that was better than neighbourhood curry shops for less than you’d spend locally.
Imagine that – you don’t have to leave your own home, you can eat better food and it costs less. What’s not to like?
Little wonder Aktar At Home became one of the hits of lockdown. Establishing itself firmly on the nation’s gastronomic map, it delivered restaurant quality to the masses for people to reheat and eat.
Aktar pushed the boundaries with flavours as he used cooking techniques from all over the world, some traditional, and some very modern. His food was simple and traditional but the processes and flavours were complex.
The beauty of Aktar’s food was this. Having been born and bred in Birmingham, he didn’t have a penchant for one particular part of India.
Instead, he took inspiration from his travels to create magnificent flavours and styles unique to a variety of regions.
His service took off and, while the hospitality industry suffered, he worked so hard that he had to take on more staff, creating jobs at a time when most restaurants were in decline.
It wasn’t just traditional curries that he did better than all the rest. He supported the needy in his local community, providing hundreds of meals weekly to various West Midlands charities.
And when Sunday came, he kept things simple by offering one of his favourite meals to all – a traditional roast.
In Christmas week, it was time to push the boat out with a classic family meal done to a Michelin-star standard.
And so a roast rib of beef was preceded by a starter of smoked salmon before being followed by a festive and figgy dessert. Delicious.
Designed to serve four, the Aktar @ Home box could, in truth, have served three times as many. Vast quantities of food made it a festive time for feasting.
Here’s what featured on the menu. Read it and weep.
Mixed olives – and boy oh boy, were they good – and pickles were followed by a platter of smoked salmon.
Then came the main event: A three-bone beef rib roast with pigs in blankets, pork sage and onion stuffing, roast heritage carrots, roast potatoes, roasted piccolo parsnips, Yorkshire puddings, truffled cauliflower cheese, sprouts tossed in Iberico ham, Hispi cabbage with Pommery mustard and bone marrow and Malbec gravy.
I know. Drop the mic. Hold the front page. Stop what you’re doing and realise what you just missed out on. Start saving a pound a day for the rest of the year and make a diary note for 2022.
It was utterly sensational.
Afterwards – and, yes, there was an afterwards – there were choux buns with a festive crème pâtissier, chocolate sauce, figs and a selection of petit fours. It lasted for days.
I’m lying. It’s still there. Pink beef that slices like butter and that was cooked to something near perfection in its own fat and more butter than a dairy continues to bewitch.
There’s more to it than just that, of course. Fresh thyme, garlic and butter – rivers of butter – made every course an absolute delight.
Simple-to-follow instructions brought Michelin to homes across the country because one guy in Brum decided not to be beaten by lockdown.
Well done, that man.
Individual elements were exceptional. Forget Heston’s this and Heston’s that, Aktar’s was the real deal. Prepped to his exacting, Michelin-starred standards, his access to the finest produce meant it genuinely was a simple case of heating and then bringing to the festive table. De. Lish. Us.
Most of the Michelin deliveries that started up during lockdown have long since stopped as chefs focus on the need to maintain standards.
Then there are those with more ambition and more foresight who realise there’s been a paradigm shift in hospitality.
Over the past two years, we’ve changed the way we eat. Dining at home may not be as popular as dining out, but it’s a significant element of the gastronomic economy. And Aktar remains at the forefront.
It’s one thing to deliver curries to the home kitchen for gentle reheating. It’s quite another to deliver an all-singing, all-dancing festive feast. Aktar delivered with enormous skill to make this year’s festive feast one to remember.
Details
Aktar At Home
Home delivery from Birmingham. Nationwide.
