Brick Lane Curry Struggle

A chef from the East End fears for the future of the predominantly Bengali run 'Indian curry' trade.

Atikur Rahman is a chef in Graam Bangla restaurant, Brick Lane. He reveals to Curry Stories some of the challenges the sector is facing. The pandemic has just made things worse. 'Covid is killing us' he states.

Tourists are not visiting Brick Lane and mostly Bengali owned restaurants are feeling the stress of lockdown and it's financial cost. He emphasises that there is also a confusion with the Indian variant of Covid-19 with Bangladeshi owned restaurants because these restaurants are 'Indian'.

Younger Bangladeshi generations are also not interested in working hard to keep the sector driving forward due to late night shifts and long working hours. He explains that this sector is short staffed.

Landlords, he emphases, are not interested in reducing the rent either whilst business revenue dwindles.