The teacher who curried favour with a table full of celebrities

Rahila Hussain has been crowned winner of ITV’s Food Glorious Food and her White Chicken Korma is stocked by M&S. But, as Catherine Scott finds, it is the start, not the end of her culinary aspirations.
Rahila HussainRahila Hussain
Rahila Hussain

WHEN Rahila Hussain was looking to test her winning White Chicken Korma she didn’t choose friends and family, she wanted someone with a bit more gravitas.

So who better than leading English actor Alan Rickman and leader of the opposition, Ed Miliband?

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“I just emailed friends to see if they knew anyone famous who might want to try my food and one came back and said they knew Alan Rickman and he would be happy for me to cook for him at a dinner party at his house. I couldn’t believe it,” says the 44-year-old secondary school teacher from Huddersfield.

But she had no idea that she would also be cooking for the Milibands, actress Miranda Richardson and a host of other celebs. “They were unbelievable. They were so nice and said lots of nice things.”

So when Rahila was asked by the production company for Simon Cowell’s new cooking competition, Food Glorious Food, who she last cooked her curry for, she could honestly say Harry Potter star Rickman.

“I never planned to enter the competition,” says Rahila, who teaches A-level law, business and social care and is also enterprise co-ordinator at Queensbury School, Bradford.

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“Last year I was approached by the production company Optomem to see if they could do some filming cooking with the kids. They then asked if anyone would like to be involved in this new cookery series, Food Glorious Food which was looking for the nation’s favourite recipe.”

She handed out lots of application forms to staff, students and parents but had no intention of entering herself.

“The students wanted to know why I wasn’t entering. I told them that it just wasn’t my thing. I like my privacy. Then on the last day I thought about it. I am always asking the kids to do things, to take a risk. What was stopping me filling in this form?”

So Rahila decided to enter using her own version of her mother’s chicken korma, never believing that she would get through to the next stage.

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“I decided that at least I would be able to tell people I had been entered but hadn’t been chosen, and that would be it.”

But it wasn’t just Alan Rickman who appreciated Rahila’s healthy take on traditional Pakistani cuisine. Food Glorious Food saw Carol Vorderman travel the country looking for family recipes and the stories behind them. The recipes were then prepared and served to judges Loyd Grossman, food writer Tom Parker Bowles, baker Stacie Stewart and WI vice chairwoman Anne Harrison.

Not only did Rahila get through the initial selection process, regional heats, quarter-finals and semi-finals – where she had to cook for 150 people – her curry was then taste-tested in the finals by thousands of Marks & Spencer customers who voted her recipe their favourite.

Her prize was £20,000 and also seeing her dish on the shelves of M&S (£3.99 with 40p going to Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital). And just this week Simon Cowell tweeted that he had eaten it and liked it.

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“Every time I got through to another stage I thought the other person had won,” says Rahila. “I wasn’t nervous at all as I never expected to get through in the first place so I was just determined to enjoy myself and make the most of the occasion. The camera crews kept saying I didn’t seem fazed but when you spend your day standing in front of 30-plus teenagers asking questions all the time it was a breeze.

“I loved cooking for 150 people. I approached it like a teacher; I wanted to be totally organised. I was helped by five friends and when I nearly chopped my finger off they were able to carry on, they knew exactly what to do.

“It is incredible to see my dish and name on the shelves. I was in London last week and I popped into M&S the day they went in and it was a great feeling. But it wouldn’t have happened without the students.”

Rahila was taught to cook by her late mother who along with her father moved from Pakistan to Huddersfield where Rahila 
was born. “My parents came from the Punjab which is very agricultural. Both their families had farms and so they were used to cooking with fresh fruit and veg and that didn’t change when 
they moved to Britain. We used 
to get that in our house all the time; seasonal veg, pulses and beans all with great flavours. I thought that’s how everyone cooked and ate.”

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When Rahila was young the Hussains lived in a mainly Asian area of Huddersfield but when the family moved when she was nine she found herself in the minority. “We were the only Asian family on our road and at school there were a handful of black and Asian children. But at secondary school there were only five of us. I was bullied due to the colour of my skin.”

However, Rahila is not bitter about her time at school. “These experiences make you the character you are. I developed a determination to show people I could succeed. I now talk to my students about bullying and how, even if they cannot intervene if something is happening to someone else, to at least come and get a teacher.”

Cooking has always been central to her life, but she was surprised when she was asked to teach the children at school some cooking.

“I told them I had no training I just cooked with my mum and they said that’s fine. I really love it, but when they asked me to cook with adults I was really really nervous. Give me teenagers any day, they say what they think and ask questions. The adults were so quiet.”

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Two years ago Rahila, who loves arts festivals, got the idea of combining her passion for Pakistani food with a festival.

“There are so many recipes and stories which are just getting lost. I thought I might be able to combine my love of Pakistan with a bit of a masterclass and a chat.”

She took her Tandoori and Tall Tales show to Saltaire Festival and also the Edinburgh Fringe. Now with the Food Glorious Food win under her belt, Rahila is keen to spread the word about Pakistan and its people further afield.

“There is a lot of ignorance about Pakistan as you only get to see the bad things. But is an amazing country with amazing people,” she says. Rahila tries to go back as often as she can as she still has family and friends in Pakistan. While she is there she learns as much as she can about the cuisine of her culture and she plans to return in the summer and make a documentary.

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“I am also planning to write a cookery book which I am very excited about which will contain traditional recipes and some of my own, more healthy recipes.”

TEN COPIES OF NEW BOOK TO BE WON

Rahila Hussain’s Fragrant White Chicken Korma is featured in the new cookery book Food Glorious Food published by Mitchell Beazley, £20.

The Yorkshire Post has ten copies of Food Glorious Food to be won. To be in with a chance of winning send your answers to the question below on a postcard to Features Department, Yorkshire Post Newspapers, No1 Leeds, 26 Whitehall Road, Leeds, LS12 1BE.

The winners will be the first ten correct entries chosen at random after the closing date of Thursday, May 9. Normal Yorkshire Post Newspapers rules apply.

Question: Which famous person was behind the idea for the ITV cooking show Food Glorious Food?