School will plug ethnic skills gap

Cyrus Todiwala, executive chef and co-owner of London's Café Spice Namaste, is planning to open a school of Asian and Oriental catering in the capital's East End in a bid to plug the sector's skills gap.

A limited company has been set up to run the college, which will be modelled on the Butlers Wharf Chef School but with language skills training also to the fore.

"In east London in particular there are very acute skills shortages and restaurants are not getting skilled staff," said Todiwala. He is hoping to appoint a director for the school next week and backing is being sought from the European Social Fund.