“I'M SO PRIVILEGED THAT THEY ACTUALLY CHOSE OUR RESTAURANT”
“I'm so privileged that they actually chose our restaurant” says Meena Sharma, Head Chef and owner of The Indian Streatery restaurant in Birmingham. The Prince and Princess of Wales had just visited, as part of a pre-Coronation tour to celebrate the city’s rich culture.
Meena Sharma is Head Chef and owner of The Indian Streatery, and runs an all-female kitchen
But for Meena, the pride she felt about the Royal visit is tied to the pride she feels about her all-female kitchen. Staffing the kitchen with women from their community was a conscious decision the Sharma family made to reflect what happens in homes across the Indian diaspora.
“Traditionally, in every single Asian Indian household, it's the women that do the cooking”, says Meena. “If you talk to a lot of the restaurants locally, they'll always say ‘oh, my Mom inspired me or my Auntie inspired me, my Grandmother inspired me.’ So I was like, okay, why are these people in the background? We need to bring them to the forefront.”
Meena Sharma on why her all female team breaks taboo
"DON'T GIVE AWAY OUR SECRETS"
As the Royal couple met the chefs running Meena’s kitchen, she warned them not to give away the eatery’s secrets to Prince William, who had asked for advice about avoiding soggy rice. William and Kate were served portions of traditional Indian street food and took part in a roti making competition.
William and Kate taking part in a roti competition
Despite the fact the food coming out of her kitchen is both technical to make and delicious to eat, Meena says cooking is often not classed as a skill. People think “she's just a housewife or she just cooks…I'm trying to break that barrier.”
She tells the story of a former employee whose husband “didn’t recognise the fact she was working” and wanted her to “go and take a computer course to do something else”.
Meena hopes that the visit might boost the confidence of any of her chefs who don’t feel like their skills are valuable. “Look what these women are doing. They're managing a city centre restaurant…And look, we have the Royal people visiting you and actually they were tasting the food that you’ve made.”
Some of the chefs at The Indian Streatery
Although Meena and her team didn’t share any secret family recipes with William and Kate, she did share her top tips for making the perfect roti with us. We’ll leave it here in case they want to take notes…