Indian restaurants are being forced to recruit unskilled chefs because they are unable to bring in trained cooks from the sub-continent, according to councillor Sadik Chaudhury (Lib Dem, Thorplands), who is a member of the British-Bangladeshi Chamber of Commerce.

Cllr Chaudhury said more than 10 per cent of Northampton's 60-plus Indian restaurants were coping without skilled chefs.

He said: "We fully appreciate that barriers to mass immigration from non-EU countries have to be erected somewhere.

"The points-based system and the requirement for skilled workers to pass an English language test before being considered for working visas are, in most cases, perfectly sensible.

"However, unless we can persuade the powers-that-be to give us some sort of special dispensation, the future for Britain's curry restaurants is bleak indeed."

Tipu Rahman, owner of Tamarind Restaurant, Wellingborough Road, Northampton, said: "Often I have to work in the kitchen because we don't have good quality chefs around.

"Every year new restaurants are opening in Northampton and our sector has to recruit several hundred new staff to work in our kitchens."

Naz Islam, the manager of Aramintas Tandoori, in Wootton Hope Drive, Wootton Fields, whose chef, Jumal Miah, won the Northamptonshire curry chef of the year award 2007, said: "We are facing an unprecedented crisis that, if not resolved, could decimate our industry."

Fellow restaurant owner Raz Miah said: "Where once we were able to turn to the sub-continent to find talented chefs brought up with the spices and cooking methods that make a great curry, we now have to try to fill all the vacancies from within the EU countries."

oliver.jelley@northantsnews.co.uk