Roll call at Indian restaurants abroad

MTR in London, Sona in New York, Tres Ind in Dubai — with more Indian restaurants opening internationally, let’s address the biggest issue today: labour

The signage at the door proclaims MTR 1924. There is vintage memorabilia on the walls inside, but the serpentine queue of diners waiting to get in is only partly interested in history. Instead, it is the lure of “authentic” bisibele and khaara bath, of “strong” filter coffee — made from a blend that is a closely-guarded family secret — and hot dosas that have hundreds of families driving from near and far to Harrow, London, where Bengaluru’s iconic, almost 100-year-old restaurant, MTR, has just opened.

It’s late January still, only a few days since the outpost opened. Among the potential diners that evening are my friends Namrata, a Delhi girl, and her husband, Sanjeev, from Chennai, who stand awaiting their turn for about 45 minutes, before giving up. “The average wait time was one-and-half hours and a shopkeeper in the vicinity told us that people were coming from as far as Leeds, Brighton and Birmingham to eat,” Namrata later says.

When I narrate this to Hemamalini Maiya, third generation owner of MTR, she chuckles, thrilled, but cautions that “it will all settle down”, as the initial “buzz” inevitably does. Regardless of the reception, I am calling Maiya not just to congratulate her, but to quiz her on a crucial aspect of the global business that gets curiously overlooked. How do the increasing number of regional Indian restaurants opening internationally — mostly to better profit margins than the ones back home — navigate labour challenges?

Traditionally, in the West, labour has been more expensive and tough to come by than in India. And now in a world upended by the pandemic, labour shortage has become Neo Liberalism’s big crisis.

In London and New York, Melbourne and Paris, as traditional supply of restaurant staff has dwindled post pandemic — with thousands of hospitality workers exiting the harsh sector, chucking long hours of work, low wages, and demanding customers — restaurants are clearly having trouble coping. Some have shut, some “forced to compromise by closing two days a week”, as chef Sameer Taneja of the Michelin-starred Benares in London laments. Several have shortened their menus, while still others are exhorting customers to serve themselves to help out the beleaguered staff.

Spanking new openings, however, are reporting housefuls every day, from Sona (Priyanka Chopra’s New York restaurant), MTR and Chourangi in London (the latter being Anjan Chatterjee’s Calcutta special eatery), to Très Ind in Dubai — not new but newly anointed as the number four swish space on the prestigious World’s 50 Best in MENA (Middle East North Africa). What is the reality behind the scenes? Are they finding it tougher to get staff, or is the new world order seeing (or expecting) easier hires from India, as countries with shortages make work visas easier?

“Labour has always been a complex issue, with every market functioning differently. It also depends on the format of the restaurant,” says restaurateur M Mahadevan, who has in the past opened his brand Hot Breads in the US, Paris and Dubai, apart from investing in popular brands like Saravana Bhavan and Kailash Parbat in multiple locations. Indian Accent’s Rohit Khattar points out, “There are five million fewer people working than before the pandemic began, and three million fewer looking for work [in the US],” sharing how difficult it has been to get staff for the restaurant’s New York outpost. The figures that he quotes are from a New York Times article addressing the labour crisis in America.