Ever-cheerful and dapper, restaurant owner Amjad Bashir, known to many as Peter, has even more to smile about these days. He’s on the verge of becoming a food magnate.

Peter, spurred on by sons Tayub and Mudassar, has ambitious plans for the award-winning Zouk Tea Bar and Grill business which he launched in Leeds Road in 2006.

This was followed by a larger Manchester Zouk restaurant; another is planned in Liverpool, and there are revised plans to expand the Bradford operation, including a cooking academy, in a former pub next door to the Leeds Road restaurant.

The ambition to take Zouk overseas, to places such as Milan, as well as into the West End of London, also remains.

And Zouk has now moved into high-street food retailing with Asda, supplying deli-style Indian and Chinese food in up to 45 supermarkets. Dishes are prepared daily at a new £1 million Bradford plant, which has initially created 12 jobs.

Peter said: “It has been a steep learning curve. There are more regulations covering food for retail sale, including a myriad of labelling and health and safety requirements. This is a completely new and exciting departure for us and it’s also great news for Bradford, where we are creating jobs.”

Peter’s business career started with a mini-mart in Whetley Lane in 1979, then came the first Keebabeesh food outlet followed by the well-known restaurant at Greengates, now run by Peter’s brother-in-law.

Born in the Punjab, Peter followed his father to Bradford in 1960, aged eight, unable to speak English. His father, Ahmed, left behind a business career in 1957 to seek his fortune here.

The family lived in Weston Street, off White Abbey Road, from where Mr Bashir senior eventually started selling cloth fents. Peter, then 13, spotted a vacant former Co-op to let and translated for his father with the landlord to lease the premises, which enabled the business to expand.

Peter said: “Like many immigrants from India and Pakistan, my father took the huge step of leaving his family behind to seek a better future in the UK.

“When I followed him over the thing I remember most is seeing the mill chimneys, wondering why everything was so black.”

Educated at Green Lane First School, Whetley Lane Middle School and Thornton Grammar School, Peter studied chemical engineering at Bradford University. But he nurtured an ambition to follow his father into business, and opened his mini-mart.

This was successful, but involved working every day from 7am until 10pm.

“It was hard work, and after a couple of years, I realised I couldn’t keep up that sort of life, although dad was not impressed with my attitude,” Peter recalled.

While back in Pakistan to meet his future wife, Shahzar, to whom he remains happily married, Peter was captivated by the idea of running a restaurant.

“We were treated to meals and it struck me that there was scope to offer genuine Punjabi cuisine in the UK, and it provided the spark of a new business idea “I have always enjoyed meeting people, and running a restaurant appealed to me, so I decided to have a go on my return to Bradford,” he said.

Peter borrowed £2,000 from Barclays and converted another shop in Whetley Lane and launched the first Keebabeesh, specialising in dishes from his home region, After six months, he’d paid back the original five-year bank loan.

Thirty years on, he supported his sons, who had the same ambition and determination that he’d had as a young man, which led to the opening of Zouk.

Peter said: “We developed the idea of a restaurant which people could use at any time of the day, to have a coffee and read the paper or for a three-course meal, again focusing on genuine Punjabi recipes “We deliberately started small but my sons always had a vision of creating something bigger – a national or even international brand. I think the Manchester restaurant, with its mezzanine floor and al fresco area, will be the pattern for future developments.

“Bradford will remain our base, and we want to focus the administration here and expand the restaurant and create a training academy.

“The Asda contract has taken us into new territory. To clinch such a deal is really special and is set to take the Zouk brand to another level.”

However big Zouk becomes, Peter Bashir’s enthusiasm, charm and determination will be a vital aspect of the business.