Restaurant's appeal to find more chefs
An award-winning Bradford food entrepreneur is appealing against a Home Office decision to block work permits for six top chefs for his expanding business. Peter Bashir, owner of Zouk Tea Room and Grill in Leeds Road, says they are urgently needed for the business which is on course to employ around 40 people.
Earlier this year, Mr Bashir travelled to India, Pakistan and Dubai to recruit highly-qualified chefs for his business.
He applied for six work permits after recruiting chefs from a seven-star hotel in Islamabad and another five-star hotel and restaurant.
But Home Office officials have rejected the application as the detailed job descriptions did not exactly match those on the original application.
Mr Bashir said: I am gutted about the decision and am appealing. But the process could be a slow one and in the meantime we desperately need these top chefs for our business.
The work permits were refused on a technicality and I am taking the appropriate legal action to get the decision overturned.
I am also looking to bring in highly-skilled people for the new Manchester restaurant on which work is already under way and will be applying for more work permits.
Mr Bashir, who runs Zouk with his two sons Tayub and Mudasser, says the acute shortage of youngsters going into catering was a threat to the future of many Asian restaurants.
He said: Fewer youngsters are going into catering and this could lead to many Asian restaurants having to close.
We are doing all we can to encourage youngsters to come into the trade, learn a skill for which they can earn good money and also earn respect.
Tayub and Mudasser regularly go into schools to try and enthuse young people about the catering business.
Lack of recruits and skills is a major issue facing our industry which is why I want to set up the Zouk food academy to provide our own business and others with suitably trained people.
I have plans to expand the business across the country but will not be able to proceed unless we can find enough young people and also bring highly-trained chefs from across the world to help train them and provide excellent cuisine.
Mr Bashir welcomed the establishment of a new Employment and Skills Board to improve the skills of workers across the district which was given the goahead by Bradford councillors yesterday and offered to serve on it.
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