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LONDON, ENGLAND, August 21, 2004: Is there a curry crisis in Britain or in Europe. If you ask the average European, he might just say — Curry Crisis? What crisis? But in Britain, something of a crisis has emerged in one of the country’s best-loved institutions – Indian restaurants. South Asian food is now Brit’s favorite cuisine, and demand for curries and baltis, not to mention paranthas and papads, has never been higher. Indian restaurant owners are, however, finding it hard, if not impossible, to satisfy that demand. They say that the younger generation, mostly born in Britain, prefers college to cooking curry, so they are increasingly looking East to their homelands to fill the gap and so fill Brit bellies.



Immigration restrictions here, though, are making that plan difficult to carry out, and thousands of putative chefs, kitchen staff and waiters have been refused visas in the last few months. “It’s been really difficult to recruit locally. We tried East European staff, but they have no skills, no understanding of what we do. Besides, our staff needs to speak the language of the kitchen if we are going to be good at what we do,” claimed Ahmed Koysor, the owner of the Sonorgaon Restaurant in London’s Brick Lane. Sources in the Indian restaurant business estimate that there are around 50,000 people needed if the industry is to operate efficiently. Last year, the Tony Blair government said it would allow workers into the country on 12-month visas to fill the catering trade shortfall.

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