How Doncaster Mrs Brown star Chef Aly has become an unlikely TV celebrity

Doncaster's Chef Aly is known for his reggae dance and delicious dishes on the hit BBC1 TV show All Round To Mrs Brown's.
Doncaster's Chef Aly with Mrs Brown star Brendan O'Carroll.Doncaster's Chef Aly with Mrs Brown star Brendan O'Carroll.
Doncaster's Chef Aly with Mrs Brown star Brendan O'Carroll.

But many people may not know that before his rise to fame, he was head chef at a restaurant in Bawtry for four years.

This led to a career in a catering company in London which served food to celebrities such as Lady Gaga and Madonna.

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Chef Aly showing off his trademark dance moves.Chef Aly showing off his trademark dance moves.
Chef Aly showing off his trademark dance moves.
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Chef Aly, whose real name is Aly Mahmoud, travelled world wide learning to cook dishes from Chinese to Indian before he was snapped up by Brendan O’Carroll (Mrs Brown) for the show.

He said he was completely surprised by the news that he was to appear as a regular character in the hit Saturday night show.

He said: “I had no idea what I was doing when I first started. I went from feeding over 100 people to just a few guests on the show.

“The first time I cooked for Brendan he said ‘I need this guy forever’.

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“Working for Brendan you get used to everything he says being a joke, so when he told me he wanted me on the show I wasn’t sure if he was joking.

“I kept saying, really? You want me?”

Fans of the show will know that Chef Aly always dances to the iconic Shaggy song ‘Mr Boombastic’ as he cooks in the kitchen - but this was not originally in the script.

The impromptu jive has however become a defining part of Chef Aly - and Shaggy himself even appeared on the show to surprise Aly in the kitchen.

He said: “When people see me in the streets they don't call me Chef Aly they call me Reggae.”

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Aly has made many extraordinary dishes for the guests on All Round To Mrs Brown's including shepherd's pie for EastEnders star Danny Dyer and paella for Spice Girl Geri Halliwell.

“I love it when I did the trifle for Freddie Flintoff,” he told us.

Despite his fame on prime time TV, Aly is still not used to being recognised.

He said: “I took my daughter to the Doncaster Dome to ice skate and the manager inside recognised me off TV, I was so surprised.”

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The show is now in it’s second series on BBC and is screened at 9.10pm on Saturday nights.

“We’ve done very good here competing with shows such as Ant and Dec.

“People really love it, we get a lot of nice comments,” he said.