BRITAIN should open a dedicated curry college so that Indian restaurants can stop recruiting chefs from overseas, according a London MP.

Curry house owners have warned that changes to the immigration are making it harder for them to recruit skilled chefs.

The Government's new points-based system allows immigrants from outside the EU to work in Britain only if they have specific skills which are in short supply in the UK.

But the Bangladesh Caterers' Association, which represents 12,000 restaurants across the country, presented a petition to Downing Street earlier this year warning that curry houses needed to be able to recruit workers from the Indian sub-continent.

Now MP Karen Buck (Lab Regents Park and Kensington North) has called for the creation of a London college to train home-grown chefs in the art of cooking the perfect curry.

It follows an announcement from the Department for International Development that Britain is to help fund a college for chefs in Bangladesh. Ms Buck said she welcomed the news, but wanted similar training schemes available in this country.

She said: "We still have pockets of extreme unemployment and a successful restaurant industry in need of skilled staff.

"Whilst there may always be a need to recruit skilled chefs from Bangladesh, we should also do what we can to continue raising the status and skills of staff in this country, and a UK curry college could help us do this"

Earlier this month the Government announced that chefs and cooks would be considered members of "shortage occupations", meaning it will be easier for foreign workers with the relevant skills to obtain a visa to come to work in the UK.

But this only applies to skilled chefs who will be earning at least £8.10 an hour in this country. There are still restrictions on recruiting junior kitchen staff who earn less.

Other professions on the shortage list include dancers, choreographers and hovercraft drivers.

Related links: Bangladesh Caterers Assocation.

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