Why Britain’s family-run Chinese and Indian restaurants are dying out
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/chinese-indian-restaurants-last-generation-dying-out-b2729360.html
Posted by tylerthe-theatre
Why Britain’s family-run Chinese and Indian restaurants are dying out
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/chinese-indian-restaurants-last-generation-dying-out-b2729360.html
Posted by tylerthe-theatre
21 Comments
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It’s because they are reaching retirement age. The restaurant was what they did when they first came to the country now their children are going to law school or becoming doctors. They aren’t interested in running a restaurant any more.
In essence people come to the country seeking a better life and opportunities for their children. They have a high focus on their children gaining academic success and they largely do which means they get professional higher paying jobs rather than staying in the family business.
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Asian families have a long history of encouraging their children to aspire to greater things.
Of course families will abandon those jobs if they can have better prospects on the horizon.
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Unpopular opinion but cards on table time: I really struggle with UK Chinese restaurants. Usually feel quite grim for days after.
It’s okay. There’s billions of Indian and Chinese we can import to keep this import tradition going
Going by tick tok, pie and mash cafes are making a comeback lol with that obese fella always saying bosh
Where I grew up, it was because the kids were high achieving and so the idea of working in a takeaway was quite a bit beneath them. We had three chinese families that owned both fish and chips and indian/chinese takeaway (it was the early 90s, it was grouped together).
Their kids all passed their 11+, got straight A’s, did extra curricular stuff like musical instruments, model students, did A levels, went to uni…and then the idea of coming back to a small town to work a 12 hour shift shovelling chips whilst someone moaned at you that the price of their cod has gone up 30p is probably not that appealing.
Their parents retired and that was that. Maybe it’s a thing of the past.
Like others have said, the owners are retiring. The same is true of small family run Caribbean, Italian, and French restaurants. The latter two partly due to brexit.
We now have a new wave of top quality latin american and west african restaurants in South London. However it’s a shame to see the decline in quantity/quality of other cuisines.
That generation opened restaurants to give their kids the opportunity to something better. It’s largely worked, so the next generation aren’t taking on the family business. It’s the sign of a successful plan. On the other hand, a ton of young Chinese people have recently moved to the UK and many have opened restaurants, often for other Chinese people living in the UK. The food styles are a bit more diverse, more ‘authentic’, and less old-fashioned too.
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Neo liberalism. Everything will be owned by corporations.
Welcome to the Amazon Chinese takeaway experience.
I went to school with a guy whose family ran a Chinese restaurant in my town. During his teenage years he was effectively an endentured servant working shifts around school for no pay. He worked hard went to uni and never set foot in the place again. I am pretty sure that his story is not unique.
From what I have heard from families such as these, running a takeaway is pretty exhausting physically and mentally. People used to work long hours to open late, at weekends and on bank holidays. Many came from poor backgrounds in Hong Kong with no qualifications and it was the only job really available. It’s not hard to understand why they often sell and dissuade their children from taking over.
This is what happened with me. Grew up, went to uni, did not think twice about taking over a chippy.
I went to my local chippy, Chinese kid serving me, 17 years old. I get talking to him and his parents. He’s going to Imperial to study aero.
6 years later, his parents are still there, he’s making six figures, moved to America.
Last saw him a year ago, they’ve replaced him with someone else.
A lot of red tape is being added to the restaurants business. It’s not as easy to open one as it was 30 years ago, and the overheads due to the red tape are too much.
A lot of this red tape is being pushed by the big chains, btw, so that no small businesses can operate.
The children have more options and don’t want to run a restaurant.
Is this based on a Reddit post from a few hours ago?
https://www.reddit.com/r/london/s/WXWCmM2EZH
Given as they started restaurants because if your the only one in an area doing it then as long as you work hard it paid lower middle class.
But there kids have seen and worked at the coal face of the restaurant for years, they don’t want to keep on doing it and they are much better qualified to do other things.