Naan starter: UK curry restaurants feel betrayed by Brexit

Mohammed-Faizul Haque makes it all look so easy.

To a pan full of sizzling chicken he adds a ladle of orangey base sauce and then lemon, sending flames shooting up. He reaches to a line of vessels for pinches of cumin, coriander, salt, chili and garlic, the feel of the ingredients between his fingers as his only measure.

After the demonstration, he sends a plate of Balti kuchi chili chicken upstairs to the dining room at the Taste of India in London.

Haque's deft touch isn't easy to replicate and that's a problem for Britain's curry houses, which are shutting down at a rate of two a week, in part because there aren't enough chefs and kitchen staff.
 

Curry restaurant owners, who as an industry backed the campaign to leave the European Union after assurances it would lead to more visas for South Asian cooks, feel betrayed.

They're angry that they helped deliver the vote to Leave only to have the government fail to deliver on promises to help save their industry. Rather than easing the shortage, Brexit is likely to make the situation worse by cutting off the flow of East European workers who have increasingly filled the gaps in recent years.

"What's happening since Brexit is even more restaurants are closing; we can't get people from anywhere," said Oli Khan, the senior vice president of the Bangladesh Caterers Association UK and a celebrity chef. "Curry houses are in danger."

Brexit is just the latest problem to hit the South Asian restaurant industry in a country where chicken tikka masala is as much the national dish as fish and chips.

In addition to a chef shortage, Britain's 12,000 curry restaurants are struggling with competition from prepared supermarket meals, high delivery costs, and rising food prices from a lower pound.

Though casually called Indian food, most curry houses are run by Bangladeshi immigrants and their offspring who fused South Asian flavors with British tastes to create a new cuisine worth an estimated 4.5 billion pounds (USD 5.6 billion) to the economy annually.

For example, the humble papadum isn't traditionally served as a starter, said Enam Ali, owner of Le Raj in Epsom. It became an appetizer when restaurants tried to accommodate Britons accustomed to being served bread when they sat down.