Kabana may be one of the biggest jewels in Huddersfield’s culinary crown.

And they’re also getting noticed on the national scene.

The Trinity Street restaurant has been shortlisted in the Asian Food and Restaurant category at the 2017 Pakistan Achievement Awards in August.

And owner Aurangzeb Khan couldn’t be prouder of how well his business is doing: “Some mystery shoppers from London had heard of me, and been aware of me for a little while, so they came here to Kabana and reported back to the judging panel, highly recommending me.

Aurangzeb Khan, owner of Kabana
Aurangzeb Khan, owner of Kabana

“The organisers came to interview me here, because I’d been shortlisted in the top 10, and then I received an invitation to the event in London because I’d been selected in the top three.”

Explaining how the central idea behind Kabana came about, Mr Khan explained the happy accident: “The tawa concept” - serving the food all together on a traditional Indian large metal dish, similar to the one it was cooked in - started when we decided to put one small table in the corner of the takeaway for people to wait at, but four people came in and sat down at it as if they wanted to eat in.

“I didn’t have any crockery or cutlery at this stage, just takeaway containers, so I thought ‘oh my god what am I going to do now?’

“I sent my brother downstairs to get a tawa while I cooked, and served them it with naan.”

Aurangzeb Khan (right) and Mohammed Hussain of the Kabana restaurant prepare skewers of chicken for the tandoor oven (2014)
Aurangzeb Khan (right) and Mohammed Hussain of the Kabana restaurant prepare skewers of chicken for the tandoor oven (2014)

Mr Khan has been in the catering industry for over 30-years now, but business hasn’t always been as good as it is now.

“I started here in 1983, back when it was my uncle’s takeaway. I was a student at the same time, so I used to study and then I’d come here and work on the till.

“Then in 1989 I took over and struggled big time. I didn’t have any staff, I was alone that whole time. It was just me and my mother. She was in the kitchen and I was out front, but around 1991 she told me that if I wanted this to work, I had to learn how to cook myself.

“In life, the harder you work the luckier you become. Like I said, when I started here I had no hope, no nothing. It was just me and my mother at the start. Now we take people on and train them up until the point comes that they leave, so I’m proud to be doing that somewhere like Huddersfield.”

Good luck to Mr Khan at the awards!