The son of one Scotland’s most respected chefs is set to relaunch the family restaurant he began working in as a 13-year-old boy following a £150,000 refurbishment.
Jasdeep Singh, 22, started in the family business as a kitchen porter at the Little Curry House in Glasgow just nine years ago, and has since risen to take the reins of the Byres Road institution which reopens this month with a new look and new menus.
The Little Curry House has been in the Singh family since 2013 when Jasdeep’s father Kulwant Singh, hailed as "a member of local curry royalty" and a former head chef at famous Glasgow restaurants Mother India and Mother India’s Cafe, took it over.
His son Jasdeep – or Jas as he is better known – soon became a fixture in the team, starting out as a kitchen porter eager to learn the art of kitchen craft and the business from the ground up. He now runs the business leading a team of 24 staff.
The new-look Little Curry House will open its doors on September 30 for sit-in with a new tapas menu inspired by the same Indian institutions his father co-founded almost 20 years ago.
The restaurant will also open on Friday for takeaway.
Kulwant opened Mother India’s Cafe alongside Monir Mohammed in 2002, which has grown to become one of the best-known Indian restaurants in Glasgow and one of the first to serve Indian tapas.
Jas is now following in his father’s footsteps, taking the Little Curry House’s reputation for authentic Indian food to the next level with its own tapas menu, featuring a host of freshly prepared and innovative small plates.
He said: “I can’t wait. Every weekend people would be lining up outside waiting for a table - there’s certainly no better advertisement for your restaurant than that.
“It’s relaxed and spontaneous, and seems even more significant now after everything everybody’s been through. I can’t wait to get back to serving people indoors again - it’ll be like serving up a family-sized portion of normality.
“Tapas is how we’re continuing that theme through the food - small plates that bring families and friends together through sharing. My dad blazed the trail with it in Glasgow, and now I’m proud to be taking it forward, people love it almost as much as we do serving it to them.”
He added: “My sister and I would work in the restaurant after school and at weekends, and we very quickly got used to the hustle and bustle of the restaurant. Before lockdown our evenings were often fully-booked. We were working 12 hour days, seven days a week – it’s what you need to do when you’re part of the family business.
“I grew up here, and I feel like it’s the time to bring it forward, while not forgetting what made it great. Surviving the pandemic is the perfect opportunity to relaunch. My father is quite rightly a member of curry royalty in Scotland. It’s important to me that I do my father’s reputation justice. I can’t wait to welcome our customers again and let them see how the space has been transformed”
Little Curry House will open its newly renovated space on Byres Road at the end of this month. Throughout September they will also be relaunching their takeaway service so that locals can get their Little Curry House fix before the grand opening.
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