Mudassar went from working in a warehouse to cooking for hundreds of people
A man took a risk to start a takeaway ‘from scratch’. Mudassar Rehman, 42, runs Curry Kiing in Edge Hill and lives in the same area. Since opening the takeaway a few years ago, Mudassar’s meals have become so popular that he is regularly tasked with providing three course meals for weddings and birthday parties.
Mudassar, who is originally from Pakistan, moved to Italy before settling in the area in 2014. While he gained experience working in restaurants, his friends encouraged him to open a venue of his own which he did after saving up his spare cash. Mudassar, speaking through a translator, told the ECHO: “I moved from Pakistan in pursuit of a better life. I moved to Italy where I spent 11 years. I had a few friends over in Liverpool which is why I chose to move here.
“I started from scratch. When I first moved here, I worked in warehouses, and then started working in a restaurant as a chef. I received great feedback. I polished his skills and that gave me confidence in my abilities. I then decided to leave the job to take a leap of faith and pursued my own business.
READ MORE: Family’s ‘intense and scary’ update from Florida as Hurricane Milton hitsREAD MORE: Home Bargains shoppers praise new ‘favourite’ 99p snack
“I wasn’t making a lot of money at my old job. My friends told me my food was good and really believed in me. They told me, if you start something, we’ll help fund it. It cost me about £30,000 to open the takeaway.” Mudassar had to call the takeaway Curry Kiing with two i’s as a takeaway with the name spelt correctly was already taken. Nevertheless, he was confident his cooking skills combined with his knowledge of curries back home in Pakistan gave him something unique. When asked what makes a great curry, he said: “The unique thing about Curry Kiing is that it presents the true authentic taste of Pakistan and Pakistani and Indian cuisine.
“The secret is that not everyone knows the recipe. Not everyone knows how to prepare it. So this is the experience, you get to know the flavour of the customer. It depends on the chef. I’m proud that my food truly reflects the authentic taste of Pakistan and Indian cuisine. I’ve been able to refine my skills in restaurants over here.
“One of the key things that they try to do is they try to cater to every single customer that comes in. In Pakistani and Indian cuisines, the food tends to be a little bit spicier than what you find over here. We take that into consideration and they always make sure that they ask the customer about the sort of spice levels they want. Every dish is tailored to that particular order that comes in.”
Not too long after opening, the demand for his curries became so great that Mudassar had to take on several members of staff and go into catering. He said: “I wasn’t looking at going into catering, but when we served customers, they liked the food, the word of mouth started to spread, and I started to get requests for lots of different events like weddings, birthday parties. The catering business has actually started to really excel. I’ve had to do weddings where there have been hundreds of guests.”
Mudassar is delighted at what he has achieved since moving to Liverpool. He said: “Once you come to Liverpool, it’s difficult not to fall in love with the city. I’m very proud of where I am today considering where I started from and the challenging journey I have gone through. I am happy that I’m getting opportunities to further polish my skills and do something that I am truly passionate about. I’m very proud that me and my team have been able to polish our skills to such an extent that they’re able to cater and cook for 300 plus people.”
