Curry house crisis... where are the women?

The Food Programme

BBC

Arts, Food

4.4 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 10 February 2019

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The British Asian restaurant sector says it's suffering the consequence of major staff shortages. Many high street takeaways and curry houses are facing closure. While restaurants search for a solution, some are questioning whether enough is being done to encourage women into traditionally male dominated kitchens. And whether if they could, this might be part of the solution.

In this programme Sheila Dillon meets pioneers of British Asian cooking. Chef Romy Gill MBE, one of the first Indian women to own and run her restaurant 'Romy's Kitchen' near Bristol. Winner of BBC One's Masterchef Saliha Mahmood Ahmed, whose multi-faceted career takes in cheffing, food writing, raising children and working as a doctor. Asma Khan, soon to be the first British restauranteur on the Emmy nominated Netflix series 'Chef's Table'. Takeaway chef Salina Ahmed, finalist in the British Takeaway awards for her cooking at 'Sizzlers' in Winchester. And Rakesh Ravindran Nair, Group Development and Training Chef at the Cinnamon Club in London.

Presented by Sheila Dillon Produced in Bristol by Clare Salisbury

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about the
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0:36.1	you can always discover more with a podcast on BBC Sounds.
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0:45.0	My grandmother lived in Bradford,
0:50.0	her and her sisters started this ad hoc samosa making business one year and it really took off.
0:57.0	They sit there with their cup of tea, one of them would form the filling, the other one would do the wrappers,
1:02.0	and the third one would do the folding and
1:04.1	then they used to rope in one of their children as a helper. So from humble
1:08.0	beginnings just in the home, they managed to work quite flexibly around
1:12.3	their own commitments to their own children
1:14.6	to develop something that really took off for some time.
1:17.7	That kind of entrepreneurship updated is changing the face of Asian food in this country and
1:24.3	sizzlers a small Indian takeaway and grill in Winchester is part of the story.
1:30.1	It's not happy story for me.
1:35.0	It's a little bit sad, but I carry on.
	...

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