Book Description

This is the story of the hidden heritage of refugees and migrants working in restaurants, cafes and takeaways. Through life stories and candid photography, it tells the untold history of migration and the evolution of integration from the overlooked regions of the Mediterranean, Middle East and North Africa. In the UK such humble establishments have been neglected by migration studies and overlooked by social historians, but they are they are unsung spaces of delicious food and of meaningful cultural interaction. The workers are stereotyped as unsophisticated but are often well educated and highly travelled, bringing with them culture, recipes and techniques from afar. Migrant heritage tells us something important about who we are as a multicultural society and how that society has been negotiated. In the UK there has been a long tradition of migrant integration through cuisine. This has been neglected by academic studies as too everyday but it contains a very telling fusion of international and local heritage. The main body of the book is a series of chapters each devoted to a different restaurant or takeaway. They allow the owners, managers, workers and customers to tell their stories through the story of their businesses. Each chapter is illustrated throughout with colourful photos of the restaurants and characterful portraits of the owners. At the end of the book is a series of essays exploring the deeper truths opened up in the interviews within the context of the wider social history.