A CHEF remained firmly on the ground as he served up a Christmas treat for a jet-setting company.

Mufar Miah, of the Raj Mahal restaurant in Fromes Hill, near Ledbury, served up a treat for 65 guests onboard a private Boeing 737 airliner.

However, the plane didn’t take to the skies, instead being stationed in Leicester.

The reason was that the guests were all employees of Imperial Air Salvage whose boss, Mustafa Azim Aolad, is a huge fan of Mr Miah’s who wanted to treat his staff to a Christmas meal.

“It was very nice,” said Mr Miah, who has previously cooked for former Prime Minister John Major and singer Janet Jackson.“Everybody was happy with it.”

The chef’s food wasn’t the only thing to have got off the ground, however.

Mr Miah was flown to the event in a private helicopter.

“In the 1990s, Mr Miah worked as the head chef of the Eye of the Tiger in Bournemouth,” said Mr Aolad.

“He was very well known for his fantastic cuisine.

“The Eye of the Tiger had catered for the Spice girls, Aswad, Soul 2 Soul, and many big names in the past.

“The Eye of the Tiger was very famous and celebrities used to visit there.

“I recently travelled to Bournemouth to get in touch with chef Mufar Miah and Mozammel Ali, who was his assistant back then, to cater for a Christmas party on board my own jet. We tracked him down to the Raj Mahal.

“Mr Miah is a really brilliant chef. I've never met anyone else like him, and unless you have tasted his food, you won’t know.

“But I know for a fact that he is one of the finest Indian chefs in Britain.”

Imperial salvages airliners for airline companies and also provides stylish air transport for VIPs.