The Great British Curry Crisis | 101 East Documentary

Butter Chicken, Rogan Josh, and the all-time favourite - Chicken Tikka Masala! The United Kingdom has embraced curry as its national dish, with tens of thousands of Indian restaurants serving mouth-watering dishes to British taste buds.

Staffed over the decades by an influx of migrants from South Asia, these curry houses employ more than 100,000 people. But now this $5bn industry is in freefall.

Every week, two Indian restaurants are shutting down as COVID-19, changing consumer tastes, and Brexit take a toll.

In this documentary, 101 East correspondent Drew Ambrose travels across the UK to find out why Britain’s curry houses are in crisis.

CREDITS:
Reporter: Drew Ambrose
Producers: Siwaporn Kingston and Aun Qi Koh
Camera: Craig Hansen
Picture Editor: Badrul Hisham
Research assistant: Jenni Henderson
Digital Producer: Hasham Cheema
Senior Supervising Producer: Nick Olle
Executive Producer: Sharon Roobol

Photos courtesy of : Tower Hamlets Archives, Tim Smith, Eastside Community Heritage, Mohammad Ali, Raju Vaidyanathan and the British Curry Awards

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[Morrosoy]

I imagine Indian food is to the UK what Mexican food is to the US!

[m.goodengumman]

Indian curry will never be out of demand, just go overseas on holiday and you talk to any fellow British people and curry is missed. 😃

[ianbeddowes]

I used to eat regularly in Brick Lane in the 1970s. I am an English bricklayer. I also took part in protecting the community from the National Front and other fascist degenerates.

[miket]

I love Indian cuisine, I see it as a huge part of British culture now. Big respect to the Indian community here in the UK.

[LaBucci]

God bless the people of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh for their amazing cuisines! Here in California it’s becoming more popular than ever before.

[drewsarmiento]

Loved the content but it was an absolute mistake for me to watch this at 3AM when everything here where I am is closed and the spectacular content got me hungry AF. I’ll just go gulp a liter of water now and just sleep this off then order a Vindaloo the moment I wake up later. Love Love Love Curry.

[kinngrimm]

I am from germany and about 30 years ago went for the first time to London on a school trip for a week or so. I had my first curry there and it became one of my alltime favorite foods ever since. Every time i came back to Lonfon afterwards i had to have it again :)
I was sad to see the UK leave the EU and also felt a little betrayed, but well thats live it doesn't always work out as one likes.

[lynnbaldwin]

I lived in Toronto for many years ; with its large South Asian population, naturally there are loads of great curry restaurants! Nonetheless I was completely gobsmacked by the number of phenomenal restaurants in the Uk; curry was everywhere and all of it was beyond If Covid ever ends and I can get back to the UK for a holiday I’ll be heading for a curry straight from the airport! 🇨🇦🇬🇧

[shaunwild]

The loss of British pubs has also contributed to people not going to Indian restaurants. The Brits used to love a good curry after the pubs closed.

[christostiger]

So much variety in South Asian food! I travelled India for 6 months in the 90s and each region has a ton of individual recipes. So happy that the UK is finally catching on. Idli breakfast please...

[ABCD-vtqs]

Indian 🇮🇳 and Iranian 🇮🇷 Cuisines 😋🤤 perfect match.

[niklas]

In my opinion the most beautiful way cultures integrate with eachother is when they change style of both cultures food. While at the same time keeping alive the ways the food is traditionally cooked.
Food is love everywhere in the world. And to share food is to love

[pikachuthunderbolt]

We Indians never use this much spices for daily food at home.
It seems to be unhealthy .
Eat less spicy and less fried .
Stay fit .

[qamarud-din]

In 1980s Ken livingstone was at Camden Council and he lent group of workers some money to set up the first co-operatively owned curry house. The grant was about £10, 000 for every job created and the press said it was outrageous. But that was the turning point. It spread like wild fire all over uk. Unfortunately kan Livingstone wasn't mentioned on this occasion.

[mtarkes]

Indian food has so much more to offer than Chicken tikka masala and vindaloo. Regional cuisines have infinitely more diversity and the world should know Odia cuisine, Seven-sisters cuisine, Marwari cuisine, Pahari cuisine and so much more.

[vishal.choudhury]

Loved how all the bangladeshis and pakistanis opens the restaurant with the name of India, it feels there are all still Indian by heart.

[Abman]

The reason Indian restaurants are closing is because thanks to lockdown people couldn't gather for a meal in a restaurant, instead the order deliveries . Takeaways adapted to this change and concentrated on deliveries, while restaurants didn't adapt to changes, and other cuisines took advantage to fill the gap left by Indian restaurant

[luis]

As someone from outside of the UK this is insanely fascinating

[euroschmau]

Over on the East Coast of the USA, South Asian food is booming! It seems like 2 new curry/Indian restaurants open every month here in Philadelphia.

[alexcarter]

This is one reason I'm really glad to have found myself living in San Jose California - the curry. We've got the Indian types of curry of course 'cos there are tons of Indians here, but there are also Chinese, Vietnamese, and Thai restaurants serving their own versions of curries, and mind-bendingly, curry's a huge thing in Japan (the history of curry in Japan is fascinating). I'm in curry heaven!