Don't hire Indian chefs, 'curry' train locals: UK ministers

While a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, will a 'tarka dal' cooked by a non-Asian taste as delectable?

Britain's immigration minister seems to believe it does, but owners of Indian restaurants here insist the industry worth £3.2 billion is facing a crisis due to tighter rules that make it virtually impossible to hire chefs from the Indian sub-continent.

Many British and European lovers of spicy Indian food have acquired mastery over cooking the delights of Indian cuisine in their homes, but Immigration minister Damian Green and his colleagues want the restaurant industry to "train more British workers".

Some institutes such as Bradford College have already started offering courses where students are taught the complex skills to cook popular 'desi' dishes.

Those enrolling on the courses include many non-Asians, but it will be some time before the newly-qualified chefs are able to fill the skills gap in the industry.

Communities secretary Eric Pickles, whose love for Indian food is widely known, hit the headlines in November with plans to set up a 'curry college'.

Chefs were dropped from the 'shortage occupation list' in March 2011. Other changes make it mandatory for owners of Indian restaurants to pay chefs recruited from outside the EU at least 28,260 pounds annually.

Owners of Indian restaurants say they simply cannot afford to pay that salary.

Indian restaurants in the UK are estimated to number 12,000, employing nearly 100,000 workers.

According to an Indian restaurant owner and founder of the British Curry Awards, Enam Ali, the inability to a secure a UK visa for foreign skilled curry chefs has put the industry in jeopardy.

The owners claim that other changes have also affected their ability to recruit chefs from the Indian sub- continent, such as having graduate-level qualifications and a minimum of five years' previous experience in a role of at least equivalent status to the one they are entring.

Speaking to The House, a magazine focusing on the House of Commons, Pickles says:

"What the government is trying to ensure is that there is a quality level so that people involved in the Asian catering industry get a full discipline in terms of management skills beside the catering skills".