Man serving Lahori breakfast in UK for last 50 years dies

LONDON: An entrepreneur and a chef, hailing from Lahore, who served authentic Lahori breakfast in London for more than 50 years lost his life to coronavirus yesterday.

Iftikhar Hussain owned the Nagina restaurant on Ilford Lane. He succumbed to the contagious disease after a few days of his ailment. Hussain was isolating at home after developing the symptoms around two weeks ago. A family member confirmed Hussain had closed his restaurant around a month ago after the UK government announced the second phase of a complete lockdown – which ended on December 2.

He had not even met anyone, but developed the symptoms, a family member said. During an interview with The News sometime back, Hussain had said that he came to the United Kingdom around 53 years ago and started working at a restaurant -- cleaning tables and washing dishes.

After years of struggle, he launched his first restaurant near Mile End over 50 years ago and started serving Lahori Chaana, Halwa Puri, Murgh Channay, Nihari, Haleem, Sheermal, Jalebi, Hareesa, Gol Gappay and Doodh Patti.

Condoling Iftikhar's demise, local MP Sam Terry joined Pakistanis in paying tribute to the well-known face of the British Pakistani community. “So sad to hear of the passing of Iftikhar Hussain. He was a popular member of Ilford South. Whenever I popped into Nagina, Hussain always greeted me with a smile and asked after my family. My thoughts go out to his loved ones and colleagues – he will be dearly missed,” MP Terry said.