When Bradford curry outlet Tazza Kitchen won ‘Best Takeaway’ at the 4th annual Bradford Curry Awards earlier this month, Tazeem Sawaiz was the only female chef nominated in the category.
Winning the award – and beating the other male-managed restaurants and outlets – was akin to breaking through the glass ceiling for 56-year-old Tazeem.
In business for just six years, Tazza Kitchen, which is based at The Thornbury Centre on Leeds Old Road and offers traditional homemade Pakistani cuisine, was nominated alongside Ambala, Karahi & Handi, Shalimar, and Shimlas.
Tazeem’s story of cooking goes back almost a decade to the time when she was studying to become a barrister.
Speaking to Asian Standard, she said: “It happened without a plan. It wasn’t planned. I was planning to become a barrister. But, while I was studying, I started selling spices to make some income. I also sold sample food along with the spices. That was back in 2015.
“So, while I was studying for my law degree full-time, I used to sell sample food and spices at the local market. We got busier and people started demanding food, and not just sample food. I started serving food, too.”
Tazeem thanks her customers for inspiring her: “What inspired me were my customers, basically. They praised my food, they said they like the food and want me to open somewhere else. These were the customers who kept coming back to me time and time again.”
Aged 50 in 2017, Tazeem graduated with a law degree. At this juncture she had to choose between her legal career and her expanding food business. She chose the latter, and the rest is history.
Speaking about how her love for cooking started, she said: “When I was young, I learnt a lot from my father and, when I got married, I learnt a lot from my mother-in-law, who was from a completely different region of Pakistan. So, I combined the two styles and brought them into my cooking.
“I used to cook food for 50 to 70 people, they all used to love it.”
Speaking about being in a male-dominated industry the chef said: “It’s a man’s world out there.
“I think when I said that I wished to pursue a business, people mocked me. They said, ‘She can’t make it’. I think a lot of people didn’t take me seriously, thinking that ‘she’s only a woman’. It’s not a woman’s world.
“The catering industry has less than five per cent women. In Bradford, you can count on your hands known women who have their own cafés. I would say two or three, maybe four.
“So, it’s been a very hard struggle for people to take women seriously. The only time they took me seriously was when they tasted my food. Others came to know about my food through word of mouth.”
Speaking of solutions at hand, Tazeem says, “I think the government can do its job. There are women who wish to cook but are constrained due to finance, so the government can provide funding opportunities to them to open up their outlets. Finance has been the biggest drawback.
“A lot of women also do not know how to get in the sector, so there needs to be awareness on that front, too, on how the food is packaged, stored and presented.”
Tazeem is already doing her part by teaching young women – and some men – how to cook. She provides training on how food is prepared.
She adds: “I am quite concerned. Since 2017, when I opened my café, I haven’t heard of any woman opening a café.”
Passing on a message to women who wish to enter the food industry as a chef, Tazeem said: “My message to them is: you are already a talented cook. There’s nothing like your food. Nothing tastes better than a mother’s or grandmother’s cooking or your own home-made cooking.
“You already are a talented chef at home. You just need a little bit of encouragement and support to get those basic skills. Just move forward.”
Tazza Kitchen can be contacted on 07728 574777 or via Tazeemsawaiz50@gmail.com
