Plane naan - Bradford chef turns abandoned aircraft into a curry house

Shajahan Chowdhury bartered with food to get his hands on the shell of a 49-foot-long Hawker Siddeley HS125 jet, which he now plans to turn into a restaurant in Bradford.

An aviation salvage company, GJD Services, agreed to swap the former charter jet for 150 vindaloos, 150 Bombay aloos, 100 onion bhajis and a cockpit full of poppadoms. A promise of a further 200 snacks will follow on request.

Mr Chowdhury, 45, said: “I reckon that deals don’t come any stranger then this and the Bank of England should consider my curry as a new rate of currency,

“These are bespoke curries made to my own recipes and would cost £10.95 each if you were to go to a restaurant, so 300 curries would retail at £3,000 plus £180 for delivery and fuel costs.

“The onion bhajis would cost £300 and the poppadoms with chutneys are £200.”

He added: “If I was to buy just a cockpit of an HS125 from a company like Rainbow aviation it would have cost me £3,500 but the whole shell with wings is around £8,000.”

Mr Chowdhury, who is originally from Bangladesh, longed to be a pilot when he was a young boy, and is hoping to revamp the plane so it looks like a private jet.

The father-of-five, from Keighley, said: “I had an ambition to one day and grow up to be a pilot but that position is only for the wealthy and influential people in my homeland.”

He said he had worked his way from kitchen porter to chef before opening his first restaurant in 2004.

Mr Chowdhury added: “I didn’t actually chose the plane, it was the only one available at the time.

“When I was assured I would get it I was absolutely elated with joy and so was my entire family. It was an awesome day in my life - it was like David Beckham scoring a goal.

“My daughters and sons are so proud, even the people in my own neighbourhood are pleased and proud.”

Given the chance the to use his “currency” again, Mr Chowdhury said: “If I could swap my curry for something, it would be a Mercedes Benz 6.3 AMG, in pearl white, and I’ll throw in the poppadoms as an optional extra.”

Looking forward the next stage of his plan, he said: “I have spoken to a few engineers and we think the interior of the aircraft will be done in four weeks as we are going to rebuild it just the same way they build caravans.”