Tributes paid as Indian food 'pioneer' dies aged 96

Tributes have been flooding in for a "pioneer of the Indian restaurant trade", who has died aged 96.

Nasir Ali moved from Bangladesh to Salisbury, Wiltshire, in the 1960s and opened the city's first Indian eatery called The Asia Restaurant.

Described as a "quiet pillar of the community," the father of three was also the first Bangladeshi to buy a house in the city, and went on to help establish The Muslim Association of Salisbury.

His son Liton said: "Dad was part of the curry boom. What I really noticed was how much he'd spend time talking to the customers, and how much he cared."

His son Dilwar described his father as a 'true pioneer of the Indian restaurant trade", with people travelling for miles to buy spices from a shop Ali opened in the 80s.

Liton told BBC Radio Wiltshire: "He would drive all the way up to Spitalfields market [in London] from Salisbury to go to get the ingredients and drive them back."

He added that his father was working during a transformative period in British food culture, and he still remembers helping with deliveries across Salisbury.

"We'd turn up in a Hillman Avenger with a boot full of curry, it was amazing," Liton continued.

Salisbury's former mayor Atiqul Hoque, who was born in Bangladesh, said Ali "laid the foundation" for Bangladeshi citizens in Salisbury.

He said: "I will always be indebted to him. He laid the foundation and we followed suit.

"He was a humble, quiet man. Everyone in the Bangladeshi community [in Salisbury] will be reminded of him."

In 1982, Ali founded the first Asian grocery in Salisbury, which saw people drive miles to buy spices such as coriander before they became widely available in supermarkets.

Liton said while work was very important to his father, so was religion.

"The work was one thing but his spirituality, his religion, his dedication to prayer was another thing which kept him alive for so long," he said.

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