Roll call in Indian restaurants abroad

Signage on the door announces MTR 1924. There are vintage memorabilia on the inside walls, but the serpentine queue of diners waiting to arrive is only partly in history. Instead, it’s the lure of the “authentic”. bisibele And candid bathof “strong” filter coffee – made from a blend that is a closely guarded family secret – and hot dosa Hundreds of whose families are driving from far and wide to Harrow, London, where Bengaluru’s iconic, nearly 100-year-old restaurant, MTR, has just opened.

The month of January is still there, only a few days are left for the outpost to open. Among the eaters that evening were my friend Namrata from Delhi and her husband Sanjeev from Chennai, who wait for their turn for about 45 minutes before giving up. Namrata later says, “The average wait time was an hour and a half and a shopkeeper in the neighborhood told us that people were coming to eat from Leeds, Brighton and Birmingham.”

When I tell this to MTR’s third generation owner Hema Malini Maiya, she laughs, thrilled, but warns that “it will all settle down”, as the initial “discussion” inevitably does. Despite the reception, I am calling on Maia to not only congratulate, but also to inquire about an important aspect of global business that is eagerly overlooked. How do the growing number of regional Indian restaurants opening internationally – mostly for better profit margins than those back home – address labor challenges?

easing of restrictions

Traditionally, in the West, labor has been more expensive and difficult than in India. And now in a pandemic-ridden world, labor shortage has become a major scourge of neoliberalism.

Vipul Gupta with the Spanish team at the destination wedding in Mexico. photo credit: special arrangement

In London and New York, Melbourne and Paris, the traditional supply of restaurant workers has dwindled after the pandemic as thousands of hospitality workers are moving out of harsher areas, working longer hours, lower wages and increasing customer demand. Are – the restaurant is clearly having trouble coping with it. Some have shut down, some have been “forced to settle for two days off”, as chef Samir Taneja of Michelin-starred Benares in London laments. Many have shortened their menus, while others are still encouraging customers to serve themselves to help distressed workers.

However, from Sona (Priyanka Chopra’s New York restaurant), MTR and Chowringhee in London (later Anjan Chatterjee’s Calcutta specialty eatery) to Trace Ind in Dubai, are reporting new openings every day – not new but newly Abhishek’s. As ranked number four in the prestigious World’s 50 Best in MENA (Middle East North Africa). What is the reality behind the scenes? Are they finding it difficult to find staff, or is the new world order seeing (or expecting) easier hiring from India, as countries with shortages make work visas easier?

Prashant Issar (in glasses) with his companions. photo credit: special arrangement

“Labor has always been a complex issue, with every market functioning differently. It also depends on the format of the restaurant,” says restaurateur M Mahadevan, who has held several locations in the past with popular brands such as Sarvan Bhavan and Kailash Parvat. Besides investing, it has opened its own brand Hot Breads in the US, Paris and Dubai. Rohit Khattar of Indian Accent says, “There are five million fewer people working than before the pandemic started, and three million fewer people working. Looking for [in the US]”Sharing how hard it has been to get employees for the restaurant’s New York outpost. The figures they quote are from a new York Times Article addressing the labor crisis in America.

In Britain, after Brexit, the labor shortage in restaurants is equally dire. However, there may be a ray of hope for Indians. “London was not as much of a challenge as we had anticipated,” Maia told me bluntly. “Our local partner was ready to open some time ago, but he deliberately waited until after Brexit, noting that bringing in chefs from India would be a little better. That turned out to be right,” she says, recently downplaying the financial commitments required from employers hiring foreign workers in the UK. While MTR London has hired two to three leading cooks, the rest are new local staff who have been given intensive training.

A Spanish chef and his perfect dosa. photo credit: special arrangement

stay local

In the UK, traditionally, top Indian restaurants have always worked with a multicultural staff, both in the kitchen and at the front of the house. Prashant says, “While Curry House sought to hire Indian, Bangladeshi or Pakistani ethnicities, when trendy, high-end restaurants emerged, they intentionally wanted to develop a more multicultural environment because they were a cosmopolitan, high-end restaurant. The paying Europeans wanted to attract the crowd,” says Prashant. Issar, who spent a decade in London, spearheads some of Camellia Punjabi’s most coveted restaurants, including the glamorous Amaya.

According to Issar, restaurants like Punjabi had strong systems and procedures so that anyone of any caste could work there, including in the kitchen. “If you are setting up a restaurant abroad, you must learn to use local staff. The executive chef should be able to break down every recipe into clear cooking procedures so that even foreign workers can cook the different ingredients of every dish,” he says, even for specialized jobs such as a. tandoor Cook (usually hired from India) can be done by anyone trained to use gas tandoor in the western system.

Employees at Sona in New York | photo credit: @sonanewyork

Almost all top restaurants now follow this practice. “We are fortunate to have a core kitchen team that has been with us for a long time, but we are also now recruiting and training local team members,” the only South Indian Michelin-starred restaurant in London , says Sriram Aylur of Quilon. , Service staff at upscale Indian restaurants have always been international, and multitasker (Issar talks about how a bartender used to look after service, purchase, wine lists, and was trained to talk about this. Lassi And Rasmi For the guests, unlike India where at least three different people would have performed these tasks). Now, for all these positions, there is a gap in the market at all levels. And such labor shortages are complex and “not going away any time soon”, Aylur says.

students to the rescue

As the world, and restaurants, reopen and new ones take root in global cities with the greatest potential for “revenge food” and profits, the demand for skilled Indian restaurant workers is at an all-time high. “Demand has gone up everywhere in the UK, Canada, Australia and the Middle-East,” says chef Nitin Pal Singh, a recruiter training hiring Indian chefs and food services staff in restaurants globally. and providing convenience. last eight years. As the supply of restaurant workers of all levels globally is short, many countries have relaxed or are easing restrictions on hiring foreign workers.

Chef & Recruiter, Nitin Pal Singh | photo credit: special arrangement

Some markets, such as the UK and even Canadian provinces, are opening up chef categories for work and immigration. “Bakers as a category opened in Canada a few years back, and there has been an exodus of bakery professionals there from India. They are employed not only in Indian restaurants but in all kinds of restaurants because baking is completely dependent on the cuisine, says Singh.

An interesting category of the temporary workforce that has emerged are Indian students – many from affluent households, not necessarily studying hospitality at international universities. Recruiters say that many of them take short-term cooking courses at home so that once they move abroad, they can work for themselves and find employment during their working hours.

“In the US, Indian restaurants must know how to work with temporary employees,” says Vipul Gupta of Mogul Catering, the largest and oldest Indian food company in North America. Gupta, in the process of setting up a restaurant in New Jersey, regularly uses students and part-time workers for his extensive catering and plans to use them in restaurants as well. “In India, hiring is pretty straightforward, but in the US, the system is different. A lot of people in this industry work part-time, so shifts have to be taken into account, and you also have to have your workforce,” says the veteran chef who worked with ITC Hotels and Hyatt in his earlier stints. Renowned for his traditional cuisine, he argues that anyone can be taught how to make high quality Indian food. “My Mexican chef makes softer idlis than any chef in Delhi!” he draws conclusions.