Highlights:
Chef Dipna Anand and her father Gulu Anand have put the Qualiko chicken range through its paces at a special foodservice event at Brilliant Gastro in Southall, demonstrating its potential across restaurants, contract catering, stadia, street food and grab-and-go operations.
The Qualiko Chicken Feast, held on Monday 7 September, brought together chefs, buyers, butchers and foodservice professionals to assess the range's quality, versatility and operational benefits.
Hosted by Dipna and Gulu Anand, the event featured a menu inspired by the flavours of the Brilliant kitchen, with support from Level 2 hospitality and catering students from West London College.
Guests were served chicken canapés before a tasting menu featuring hand-folded chicken samosas with mint chutney, tandoori chicken with tamarind chutney and masala fries, achari chicken tikka with kachumber salad, dynamite wings, butter chicken with pilau rice and shawarma on naan. Gulab jamun with pistachio completed the menu.
Qualiko Chicken tested across multiple dishes
The dishes used a selection of products from the Qualiko portfolio, including steamed cooked skinless boneless thigh meat, shawarma boneless thigh meat, oyster thigh meat, steamed wings, cooked chicken breast fillets and frozen shredded shawarma.
For the Anand family, the event was about more than demonstrating flavour. The products were also assessed from the perspective of high-volume foodservice, where consistency, speed, portion control, reliability and labour efficiency are critical.
The Brilliant business has expanded significantly beyond its restaurant roots. Through its collaboration with Compass Group, Brilliant dishes are served at major sporting and entertainment venues, including Chelsea Football Club, Brentford FC, The Kia Oval, Allianz Stadium Twickenham, Harlequins, Edgbaston and The O2.
Dipna Anand said the Qualiko range performed well across the different dishes while giving chefs scope to add their own flavours. “Dad and I were genuinely impressed by how well the Qualiko products performed across the dishes. In our business, flavour will always come first, but when we’re producing food at scale in our CPU, we also need consistency, reliability and products that help our chefs work efficiently. Whether we’re cooking for the restaurant, our delivery business or large-volume stadia catering, we need to know we can reproduce the same quality time after time. The Qualiko range gives chefs a versatile starting point while still allowing us to put our own Brilliant flavours and identity into the finished dish.”
Range suited to Indian and Asian foodservice
The event also highlighted the potential of the chicken range for Indian and Asian foodservice, with products used across dishes including tikka, butter chicken, samosas, shawarma, wings and naan-based street-food offerings.
The versatility could make the range relevant to operators developing contemporary street-food, food-to-go, quick-service and stadium menus.
For Gulu Anand, the practical performance of a product is as important as its taste. “When you have spent your life in restaurants and catering, you know that a product has to work in the kitchen as well as taste good on the plate. You need consistency, you need to control waste, and you need something chefs can work with quickly when the kitchen gets busy. I liked the quality of the Qualiko chicken, and, importantly, it took our marinades and spices extremely well. That makes it very useful for Indian and Asian cooking, where the chicken needs to carry flavour.”
The event was organised as an opportunity for chefs and foodservice professionals to experience the products in commercially relevant dishes rather than simply as standalone ingredients.
Brilliant's next chapter in Southall
The event also highlighted the evolution of the Brilliant business, which traces its roots to Nairobi in the 1950s, when Bishen Dass Anand established the original Brilliant Restaurant.
Following the family's move to Britain, his sons Kewal and Gulu Anand opened Brilliant Restaurant on Western Road in Southall in 1975. Over the following decades, the business developed into a Southall institution, expanding into banqueting and cookery education while attracting customers from across the UK and beyond.
The original restaurant closed in April 2025 after 50 years, with the family subsequently launching Brilliant Gastro by Dipna Anand at Parkside Yards in Southall's Green Quarter.
The new concept combines the family's Punjabi heritage with a contemporary gastropub format, while the wider business now encompasses restaurant dining, outside catering, retail, delivery and high-volume foodservice.
A platform for foodservice innovation
Brilliant Gastro also provided a setting for demonstrating how food manufacturers and suppliers can test products in a working culinary environment.
With professional kitchen facilities and restaurant and event space, the Southall venue can provide manufacturers with an opportunity to put products directly into chefs' hands and demonstrate how they perform in commercially relevant applications.
For MHP Foods, the company behind the Qualiko brand, the Chicken Feast provided a platform to position the range as a versatile foodservice ingredient capable of working across different cuisines and formats.
The menu illustrated that flexibility, moving from Indian classics such as butter chicken and achari tikka to dynamite wings and shawarma naan.
For operators producing hundreds or thousands of portions, such versatility can help reduce preparation requirements while providing more predictable yield and consistency. It can also allow chefs to concentrate on sauces, seasoning, presentation and other elements of the final customer experience.
The event ultimately positioned the Qualiko range as a practical option for foodservice operators looking to balance convenience and consistency with the flexibility to create distinctive menus.
