I think they were connecting two seperate cuisines which heavily feature spices, not goving Nandos as an example of indian food.

South African and Portuguese fusion food.

The history is that South Africa had a lot of Portuguese immigrants during the Portuguese civil war, and that then made a whole new cuisine that’s a fusion of South Africa and Portugal.

And the owner was from that region, and brought that cuisine over to England, big hit, made a chain of it