CHARISMATIC chef Rafi Maywand ensures all diners receive royal treatment when they visit his Meltham restaurant.

The aristocratic exile, whose family ruled in Afghanistan for 300 years, has been working at the Traveller's Rest pub for the past eight months.

And now the restaurateur with royal blood is hoping to start a TV career to highlight the vital work needed to rebuild his homeland.

Rafi, 34, lives in Slaithwaite with his wife Maxine and sons Edward, aged eight, Alex, six, Adam, two and Aaron, nine months.

He left Afghanistan with his aunt and uncle when he was just three months old.

During the Soviet invasion of 1979 his relation and Afghan president Dawoud Shah was massacred, along with other members of Rafi's family.

"All our family was wanted by the Russians, with £200,000 on our heads," said Rafi.

He lived as an exile in Germany for 17 years and Australia for 13 years, five of which he spent training as a master chef.

There he met Maxine, who is originally from Huddersfield.

For most of Rafi's life, Afghanistan has been at war. But with some measure of stability returning following the fall of the strict Taliban regime, his family are now going back home.

`Home' for Rafi means the city and region of Maywand in the southern province of Kandahar, location of the family estate of 15,000 hectares.

"It's not 100% safe but the family have gone back, most of them," he said.

Now he has ambitious plans that longed-for TV appearances will alert people in the west to the massive amount of work needed to restore a nation recovering from 20 years of war.

"My plan is now to go on TV, either on Ready Steady Cook or my own programme so I can support Afghanistan," he said.

He has already had a meeting with staff from BBC2 to outline his hope.

He also wants to open cooking schools in Afghanistan to give youngsters valuable skills and help revitalise the economy.

Taking his Afghan passion for hospitality around the globe, he has set up many successful restaurants.

But his aim now is to help secure lasting peace for his homeland.