Long Road from Jarrow by Stuart Maconie

Author:Stuart Maconie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ebury Publishing
Published: 2017-07-20T04:00:00+00:00

I didn’t know it, as I scooped chana and sambar on Leopold Square, but behind the scenes and the kitchen doors, the curry is in crisis. Two or three Indian restaurants are closing every week in Britain. Like the public house, it is a cherished mainstay of our social life that we are in danger of losing. A real shame this, and not just gastronomically, as for years curry houses have been rare islands of independent family enterprise in high streets dominated by chains. They played a vital role in the regeneration of many local economies in the 1980s and 1990s. Now those chains, from the cheap and carby pizza big boys to the ersatz, unconvincing curries offered by the Harvesters and, yes, Wetherspoon are forcing them out.

The price of our beloved curry has barely changed in 20 years outside of a minor trend for fine dining establishments. But costs are rising fast. The weakness of the pound has doubled the price of spices imported from India. Staples like cooking oil and rice have become more expensive and hiring costs are rising. Staffing generally is a major issue. Thousands of Indian restaurants are critically short of staff and facing a number of problems. Since the Brexit vote, economic uncertainties have hit curry houses (in fact, most independent restaurants) hard in terms of rent and overheads. Young Asians are being lured away from family curry house business into more lucrative jobs, such as in IT, medicine and finance. And of course, the climate with regard to immigration has cooled and hardened.

In April 2016, a few months before I set out, a new law was passed prohibiting Bangladeshi chefs from coming to work here unless they can earn £35,000 or more a year after living expenses. In effect, this is a ban since few Indian restaurant chefs earn that and everyone knows it. Lord Bilimoria, the Indian peer and entrepreneur behind Cobra beer, called the law ‘ridiculous’ and ‘discriminatory’ adding, ‘I sometimes think we are a very ungrateful nation. You are damaging an industry that provided food your country loves.’

It’s estimated that one in three British Asians voted for Brexit. Many Indian restaurateurs have told reporters that they cast their vote this way hoping that leaving Europe would bring more favourable terms for south Asian immigrants. The president of the Bangladesh Caterers Association Pasha Khandaker urged his 4,000 members to vote ‘leave’, sentiments echoed by rallying voices like then employment minister Priti Patel, who told British Asians that by voting leave, they could ‘save our curry houses and join the rest of the world’. So far, it isn’t working. You can see this for yourself tonight. Walk down your high street and look in the chain pub, look in the pizza franchise, look in the chippy even and then compare this busyness to the two occupied tables in the little independent curry house.

Happily Aagrah was still full to bursting when I left; smiling waiters weaving through tables groaning with vast, fluffy naans, chilled Indian beer, bottles of red and their laughing, ruddy drinkers.

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