THE price of rice has doubled and that's only for starters. Wali Uddin hasn't far to look for worries in running a curry house in Leith.
There are 10,000 in the UK (7000 owned by Bangladeshis like Mr Uddin) with an annual £3.5 billion turnover and, the run on rice apart, the industry is desperately short of chefs. The government's Skills Secretary John Denham wants a thousand British
curry chefs trained soon as possible.
Wali at his Britannia Spice flagship wonders: "How will the training be financed and will the restaurateurs will be able to pay these chef realistic wages?
"As it is, a head chef from Bangladesh, India or Nepal can hope for up to £12,000, say £15,000 max. Kitchen staff are lowly paid but generally are happy considering that back home they probably get £100 per month.
"The hours are long and, of course, a British-trained chef would have problems with the language. Under new rules Bangladeshi immigrant cooks are banned unless they can speak English."
Adds Wali, 30 years in the Edinburgh restaurant business:" What Mr Denham is prescribing could add substantially to the price of a meal. What costs, say, £25 could rise to £70."
Worrisome, to the extent that both Wali's Edinburgh-born sons have shunned the business. They've set up for themselves in the motor trade. My advice: scurry for a curry while today's prices last.
Making a splash Exploding bladders. They're fast becoming all the rage. If you're a woman and a binger, one of the many populating Edinburgh's streets at the weekend, be afraid.
According to the British Medical Journal, emergency wards down south are fast filling with louche ladies suffering from alcohol-induced bladder rupture on the big night out.
Indeed, it's the new fashion down there and it's heading north. Hardly the ideal way to impress your fella in an explosive relationship.
Afterwords . . . . Paul Newman: "To work as hard as I have, to accomplish what I've accomplished, and then have some yo-yo come up and say 'take off those dark glasses and let's have a look at those blue eyes.' It's really discouraging."
The full article contains 369 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
